UC-NRLF 


B    3    512    flfi3 


Satire   in   the 
Early   English    Drama 


By 
Eva  M.  Campbell 


COLUMBUS,  OHIO: 
THE    F.   J.  HEER    PRINTING    CO. 

1914 


X 


*\1 


c 


PREFACE. 


Though  numerous  references  have  been  made  to  the  satirical 
character  of  many  of  the  plays  of  our  Early  English  Drama  be- 
fore 1600,  no  work  exists  which  shows  in  detail  this  informal 
dramatic  satire.  It  is  hoped  that  this  dissertation  will  be  use- 
ful with  its  instances  of  early  informal  satire  taken  from  the 
miracles,  moralities,  and  interludes  of  the  period  1450  to  1600 
in  showing :  ( i )  the  place  satire  holds  in  the  early  drama — a 
place  to  become  exceedingly  prominent  in  the  Elizabethan  Drama, 
especially  in  the  plays  of  Ben  Jonson ;  (2)  the  relation  of  this 
satire  to  the  subject-matter  and  the  purpose  of  the  plays;  (3) 
the  methods,  tone,  type,  and  the  objects  of  attack  of  this  satire; 

(4)  a  reflection  of  the  manners  or  social  traits  of  the  period; 

(5)  a  comparison  of  this  informal  dramatic  satire  with  the  in- 
formal satire  occurring  in  other  literary  forms  of  the  period, 
and  with  the  informal  dramatic  satire  of  Elizabethan  times. 

The  writer  is  indebted  to  the  following  excellent  teachers : 
E.  L.  Beck,  B.  A.  Eisenlohr,  E.  S.  Ingraham,  E.  H.  McNeal, 
W.  S.  Elden,  A.  H.  Hodgman,  and  C.  S.  Duncan ;  and  owes 
special  acknowledgment  to  S.  C.  Derby,  Professor  of  Latin,  J. 
R.  Taylor.  Professor  of  English,  and  J.  V.  Denney,  Dean  of  the 
College  of  Arts.  Professor  Denney  has  been  exceedingly  kind 
and  has  read  the  first  and  last  drafts  of  my  dissertation.  Pro- 
fessor G.  H.  McKnight  has  been  helpful  in  proposing  a  subject, 
in  directing  my  efforts,  and  in  giving  encouragement — such  as 
only  those  who  have  been  in  his  classes  can  appreciate. 

Many  thanks  are  due  also  to  the  Dean  of  Women  of  Ohio 
State  University — Caroline  M.  Breyfogle. 

Columbus.  Ohio,  May  22,  1914. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Chapter        I.     Introductory   9 

Chapter      II.     Satire  in  the  Miracle  Plays 16 

Chapter    III.     Satire  in  the  Pre-Tudor  Moralities 36 

Chapter    IV.     Satire  in  the  Earlier  Tudor  Moralities 46 

Chapter      V.     Satire  in  the  Elizabethan  Moralities 75 

Chapter    VI.     Satire  in  the  Interlude  or  Farce. 103 

Chapter  VII.     Summary  and  Conclusion 114 


TEXTS  OF  PLAYS. 


Abraiham   and    Isaac.      Brome   MS.     "'Non-Cycle   Mystery   Plays."     E.   E. 

T.  S.  ex.  ser.  104,  Ed.  O.  Waterhouse. 
Abraham  and  Isaac.     Dublin  MS.    Ibid. 

Albion  Knight.     Shakespeare  Society  Publications,  1844,  vol.  1. 
All  For  Money.     Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  vol.  XI,  1904. 
Ane  Pleasant  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaitis,  E.  E.  T.  S.  37,  Part  4. 
Calisto  and  Meliboea.     Dodsley's  Old  English  Plays,  vol.  I. 
Castle  of  Perseverance,  The.     "Macro  Plays,"  E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  91. 
Chester   Plays,  Ed.   T.  Wright.     Shakespeare  Soc,   1847. 
Christ's  Burial  and  Resurrection.     E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  91. 
Cobbler's  Prophecy,  The.     W.  Dibelius.     Shak.  Jb.  33,  1897. 
Conflict  of  Conscience,  The.     O.  E.   P.,  vol.  VI. 

Contention  Between  Liberality  and  Prodigality.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  VIII. 
Conversion  of  St.  Paul.     "Digby  Plays,"  E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  70. 
Cornish   Cycle,  The.     Ed.   E.   Norris.     "Ancient  Cornish  Drama"  2  vols. 
Coventry    Cycle,    "Two    Coventry    Corpus    Christi    Plays."      Ed.    Hardin 

Craig.     E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  87. 
Croxton    Play    of    the    Sacrament.     "Non-Cycle    Mystery    Plays."     E.    E. 

T.  S.  ex.  ser.  104. 
Cruell  Debtter,  The.    W.  Wager.     Malone  Society,  1911. 
Disobedient  Child,  The.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II. 
Dux  Moraud.     W.  Heuser.     Anglia  30   (1907)   p.  180  fT. 
Everyman.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  I. 
Four  Elements,  The.     Ibid. 
Four  P's,  The.     Ibid.         • 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle.     Ibid.  III. 

*Gentleness  and  Nobility.     J.  S.  Farmer.     Early  English  Dramatists. 
God's  Promises.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  I. 
Godly  Queen  Hester.     Ed.  W.  Bang.,  "Materialien  zur  Kunde  des  alteren 

Englischen  Dramas." 
Hickscorner.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.   1. 
Impatient  Poverty.     Ed.  W.  Bang.,  "Materialien — " 
Jack  Juggler.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.   II. 
Jacob  and  Esau.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II. 
*John  Baptist.     Harleian  Miscellany  I,  97. 
Johan  the  Evangelist.     Malone   Society. 

John,  Tyb  and   Sir  John.     Ed.   A.   Brandl.     "Quellen   und   Forschungen." 
Killing  of  the  Children,  The.     "Digby  Plays,"  E.  E.  T.  E.,  ex.  ser.  70. 
King  Darius.     Brandl's  "Quellen,"  p.  359. 
King  Johan.     Ed.,  Manly,  J.  M.     "Pre-Shakespearean  Drama,"  vol.  I. 

*  Not  accessible. 


s 

Life  and   l\c])ciUancc  of  Man-  Magdalene.     Ed.   F.  J.  Carpenter. 

Like  Wil  to  Like.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  IIL 

Longer  thou  Live.st  more  F"ool  thou  Art.     Sh.  Jb.  XXXV] . 

Love.     Brandl's  "Quellen." 

Love.     Feigned  and  Unfeigned.     Malone  Society,  UUL 

Ludus  Coventrise.     Sh.  Soc,  184L     Ed.  J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillips. 

Magniticence.  E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  CXVIIl. 

Mankind.     E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  91. 

Mary  Magdalene.     "Digby  Plays."     E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  70. 

Mind  Will  and  Understanding.     E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  9L     "Macro  Plays." 

Mundus  et  Infans.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  L 

Nature.     Brandl'.';  "Quellen." 

New-Castle-upon-Tyne.     E.  E.  T.   S.,  ex.  ser.  104.     "Non-Cycle  Mystery 

Play.s." 
New  Custom.     O.  E.  P.,  vol. 
Norwich.     E.  E.  T.  S..  ex.  ser.,  104. 
Pardoner  and  the  Friar,  The.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  L 
Patient  Grisscl.     John  Phillip.     Malone  Society. 
*Philotus. 

Pride  of  Life,  The.     Brandl's  "Quellen.'' 
Prodigal  Son,  The.     Malone  Society.     1911. 
■  Rare  Triumphs  of  Love  and  Fortune.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  VI. 
Respublica.     E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  94. 
/Ralph   Roister   Doister.     O.  E.  P.,  vol:  III. 
*Somebody  Avarice  and  Minister. 
Temperance  and  Humility.     Malone  Soc.    1911. 
*The  Temptacyon :    John   Bale. 

Three  Ladies  of  London.  The.     O.   E.   P.,  vol.  VI. 
Three  Laws,  The.     John  Bale.     Anglia,  V.  137. 
Three  Lords  and  Three  Ladies  of  London.     O.  E.  P..  vol.  VI. 
Thersites.     O.  E.  P.,  vol.  I. 
Tide  Tarrieth  No  Man,  Sh.  Jb.  XLIII. 
Tom  Tyler  and  His  Wife.    Malone  Soc.     Reprints.     1910. 
Towneley  Plays.     Ed.  George  England.    E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  70. 
Triall  of  Treasure.     O.  E.  P..  vol.  III. 
Youth.    O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II. 

York  Plays.     Ed.  Lucy  Toulmin  Smith.    Oxford,  1885. 
Wealth  and  Health.     Malone  Soc.  Reprints. 
Weather,  The.     Brandl's  "Quellen,"  p.  211. 
Wit  and  Science.     Sh.  Soc.  1848. 
Witty  and  Witless.     Percy  Soc,  vol.  XX,  1846. 

MORAL  TRAGEDIES. 

Apius  and  Virginia.     O.  E.  P..  vol.  IV. 
Cambyses,  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  IV. 
Horestes.     Brandl's  "Quellen." 

*  Not  accessible.  * 


CHAPTER  I 


I  propose  to  discuss  the  informal  satire  occurring  in  that 
mediaeval  period  of  the  drama  between  1400  and  1600.  This 
satire  is  like  the  drama  in  which  it  is  found  in  two  respects :  it 
is  irregular  and  it  is  scarcely  deserving  of  the  type-name.  We 
may  attempt,  however,  to  define  it  as  a  form  of  composition  in  . 
verse  or  prose  which  is  subject  to  no  fixed  form  such  as  the 
decasyllabic  couplet  of  formal  satire  and  which  is  not  a  con- 
scious literary  production  but  rather  the  immediate  expression  of 
thoughts  resulting  either  from  the  universal  desire  of  men  to  - 
ridicule  follies  in  others  or  from  the  occasional  desire  of  some/ 
to  lash  evils  and  inconsistencies  with  the  hope  of  causing  a  re- 
form. If  we  could  subtract  from  Juvenal's  satire  his  interest  in 
form,  in  rhetoric  we  should  have  something  approximate  to  in- 
formal satire.  This,  however,  differs  from  Juvenal's  efforts  in 
that  it  arises  spontaneously  from  the  desire  to  attack  evils ;  it 
spends  all  its  force  on  the  substance  of  the  attack  and  pays  no 
heed  to  the  literary  form. 

The  same  satirist  may  write  both  formal  and  informal  satire, 
for  instance,  Ben  Jonson.  It  all  depends  upon  the  mood  of  the 
writer.  If  he  be  solely  interested  in  holding  up  to  the  ridicule 
of  the  world,  an  individual,  a  class,  a  locality,  a  trade,  or  an 
institution,  he  will  write  informal  satire.  Here,  then,  we  may 
expect  a  somewhat  faithful  reflection  of  the  life  of  a  particular 
period. 

If  we  contrast  formal  and  informal  satire,  we  find  that  in  the 
main  qualities  they  are  alike.  Both  must  have  humor,  must  show 
in  their  authors  a  sense  of  superiority,  a  sense  of  the  ludicrous, 
the  power  to  exaggerate  either  consciously  or  unconsciously,  and 
at  the  final  analysis  a  reformatory  purpose.  The  chief  dis- 
tinction seems  to  be  in  the  form,  the  spirit,  the  purpose,  the 
quantity  of  humor,  the  type  and  the  scope  of  the  subject- 
matter:  The  informal  satire  by  not  being  restricted  to  one  fixed 
form  can  show  greater  variety  of  expression  than  the  fornial. 
It  can  be  original  in  choosing  forms  for  its  expression ;  formal 

9 


lO 

English  satire  can  not  since  it  is  based  upon  Latin  satire  or  upon 
imitations   of   the  Classical   satire.      It   differs   from   the    formal 
'     satire  in  its  chief  purpose  to  attack  and  destroy  an  evil — not  to 
achieve  a  literary  performance  by  the  use  of  satiric  material. 
As  to  spirit,  it  is  fairer  than  the  formal  for  it  sees  along  with 
the  evil  a  glimpse  of  the  good.     It  does  not  condemn  all  mem- 
bers of  a  class  or  trade  as  does  Juvenal.     Pessimistic  though  it 
may  be,  it  is  yet  hopeful.     In  type  it  is  objective  rather  than  sub- 
jective.    It  is  not  philosophical  or  reflective.     Its^  humor  is  often 
\^  f^int,-    Its  methods  are  direct  and  indirect.     Its  subject-matter 
confines  itself  to  public  evils  rather  than  to  private ;  to  classes 
and  groups  rather  than  to  individuals. 
"^  Informal  satire  is  not  one  of  the  steps  in  the  evolution  of 

formal  satire.  The  informal  dramatic  satire  of  the  period  1400 
to  1600  does  not  lead  up 'to  formal  Elizabethan  satire.  Its  rep- 
resentatives in  Elizabethan  satire  are  not  the  satires  of  Wyatt, 
Hall,  Donne,  and  Lodge  but  the  satiric  plays  of  Ben  Jonson. 

Informal  satire  may  be  subordinate  to  the  type  of  composi- 
tion in  which  it  is  found ;  that  of  the  early  drama  is  subordinate. 
It  came  with  direct  didacticism  which  lay  at  the  basis  of  me- 
dieaval  drama.  It  is  itself  indirect  didacticism  since  it  points  out 
I  inconsistencies  unworthy  to  be  imitated  and  deserving  to  be 
I  destroyed.  The  part  it  played  in  the  drama  became  more  and 
more  important  as  the  attack  upon  evils  in  the  church  and  the 
state  became  bolder. 

At  first  this  political  and  religious  satire  scarcely  appeared 
in  the  drama.  Instead  there  was  the  dull,  generalized  lament  on 
the  time  moral  and  social  satire.  The  specific  attacks  on  the 
clergy  and  the  government  became  more  frequent  in  the  moral 
plays  in  which  the  appeal  was  not  so  much  to  the  eye  as  to  the  ear. 
What  was  said  came  to  be  of  more  importance  than  what  was 
seen.  A  greater  demand  was  made  upon  the  intellect  of  the 
audience.  .''•  Material  dealing  with  contemporary  problems  was 
introduced  much  of  which  especially  during  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  was  satirical  comment  on  the  follies  and  the  im- 
morality of  the  church,  on  the  courts,  ecclesiastical  and  civil, 
and  on  the  government. 

In  some  of  the  early  dramas,  the  satire  does  not  have  the 
spirit  of   reform.     Instead   of  the   method  of   direct   rebuke   a 
character  is  represented  as  typical  of  the  evil  as  in  Heywood's 
i 


1 1 

farces  where  we  see  the  priest  immoral,  the  wife  unfaithful, 
and  the  husband  duped.  Here  is  burlesque  both  iamusing  and 
satirical.  Perhaps  we  may  say  that  "J^ck  Juggler"  is  a  satirical 
burlesque  on  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  the  people  believ- 
ing it  being  as  foolish  as  the  bewildered  Jenkin  Careaway  who 
xould  not  tell  whether  he  was  himself  or  his  double. 

A  comparison  of  this  informal  dramatic  satire  with  the  in- 
formal undramatic  satire  of  the  same  time  shows  much  the  same 
material  of  attack,  the -same  method,  tone,  type,  style.  A  com- 
parison with  the  formal  Elizabethan  satire  has  already  been 
made  by  Dr.  Raymond  M.  Alden  and  need  not  detain  us  here. 
"^^  My  purpose  is  first  to  make  an  intensive  study  of  the  Early 
English  Drama — the  Miracles,  Moralities,  and  Interludes  before 
1600  with  the  intention  of  giving  all  the  instances  of  satire  that 
occur.  These  will  be  pf  course,  of  no  literary  value  for  the  plays 
from  which  they  are  taken  are  so  crude  that  they  do  not  justly 
merit  tTie  name  drama.  They  will,  however,  be  interesting  as 
showing  the  beginnings  of  satire  in  the  drama — the  literary  form/ 
in  which  it  has  achieved  its  greatest  effectiveness.  They  will 
show  what  the  mediaeval  mind  satirized  in  politics,  religion,  and 
society,  and  incidentally  reflect  the  life  of  the  times. 

This  early  dramatic  satire  is  like  most  of  the  undramatic 
satire  which  preceded  it,  informal  in  nature ;  it  is  written  in  var- 
ious metres  sometimes  in  the  alliterative  long  line,  sometimes  in 
ballad  form,  or  in  a  jingle  characteristic  of  a  particular  author, 
for  instance.  Skelton's  own  peculiar  measure.  It  is  written  not 
only  informally  but  also  incidentally.  The  authors  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  were  didactic  in  thought.  What  they  wrote  was  at  first 
constructive  in  aim,  not  destructive ;  and  consequently  not  satir- 
ical. The  drama  until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
shows  only  snatches  of  satire. 

The  first  English  man  of  letters  to  write  satirical  drama  was 
John  Skelton.  a  priest  of  the  time  of  Henry  VII  and  Henry  VIII. 
Two  of  his  contemporaries  deserve  to  be  mentioned  with  him — 
John  Bale  and  the  Scotch  satirist.  Sir  David  Lindsay ;  this  trio 
of  priests  were  writing  at  the  period  when  the  New  Learning 
and  the  Reformation — the  two  factors  of  the  Renaissance — 
were  being  felt.  All  three,  however,  though  influenced  by  the 
Renaissance  belong  to  the  mediaeval  school  and  use  mediaeval 
forms  especially  allegory. 


12 

But  before  these  men  began  to  write  with  evident  satirical 
intent  there  were  authors  of  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth, 
and  fifteenth  centuries  who  occasionally  became  satirical.  Some 
wrote  satirical  songs;  some  satirical  visions,  or  dialogues,  or  rude 
dramas  in  which  there  were  opportunities  for  satire.  In  the 
twelfth  century  during  the  reigns  of  Henry  II,  Richard  I,  and 
John,  there  was  the  poetry  of  the  Goliards  or  wandering  clerks 
in  Latin;  there  was  the  sirvente  of  the  trouvere  and  troubadour  in 
Anglo-French,  besides  epigrams  and  satires  in  Anglo-Latin.  In 
the  thirteenth  century  during  the  reigns  of  Henry  III  and  Ed- 
ward I  the  Goliards  continued  to  write  poetry.  They  did  not, 
however,  confine  themselves  to  the  use  of  Latin  but  wrote  in 
Anglo-French,  and  English  too.  Ecclesiastics  also  wrote  satire  in 
the  three  languages  while  the  gleemen  sang  songs  in  English  which 
were  the  counterpart  of  the  sirvente  of  the  twelfth  century  in 
Anglo-French. 

Passing  to  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  we  find 
in  the  first  named,  during  the  reigns  of  Edward  I,  II,  and  III, 
and  Richard  II  a  few  Goliardic  poems,  some  social  satire  su- 
perior to  any  that  had  yet  befen  written,  the  songs  of  Lawrence 
Minot  against  the  French  and  the  Scotch,  and  the  beginnings  of 
class  satire.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  century  there  was  the 
incidental  satire  in  Langland's  "Piers  Plowman"  and  in  Chaucer's 
"Canterbury  Tales."  In  the  fifteenth  century  during  the  reigns 
of  Henry  IV.  V.  VI.  Edward  IV,  Richard  III.  and  Henry  VII. 
little  satire  was  written.  There  were  Ly:dgate's  attempts,  the 
realistic  "London  Lickpenny".  and  "Ragman  Roll" — beginning 
the  conventional  satire  on  woman.  Then  the  Lollard  poem  "Jack 
Upland"  followed  by  the  political  ballads  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  completed  the  list. 

Treating  these  early  periods  in  more  detail,  we  notice  listed 
in  the  twelfth  century  as  an  imitation  of  the  French  allegorical 
satire  "Architrenius"  by  Jean  de  Hauteville.  We  find  satire  on 
woman  in  Walter  Mapes'  "De  Coniuge  non  Ducenda"  anticipat- 
ing the  later  English  "Ragman  Roll" ;  and  satire  on  the  clergy  in 
his  "Apocalypsis  Goliae" ;  and  satire  on  education  and  religion 
in  Nigellus  Wireker's  "Speculum  Stultorum."  These  satires  of 
the  time  of  Henry  II  though  in  Anglo-Latin  serve  to  show  us 
that  there  was  plenty  of  material  for  satire  and  that  there  were 
a  few  who  saw  the  evils  of  the  dav  and  dared  attack  them. 


13 

In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  we  have  besides 
the  satire  in  Langland^  Chaucer,  and  Gower,  the  invectives  of  the 
people  dealing  with  subjects  varying  from  the  vanity  of  woman, 
the  oppression  of  the  poor  and  the  arrogance  of  servants  to  the 
immoraHty  of  the  clergy.  Listed  by  titles,  they  are:  "On  the 
Vanity  of  Women,"  "The  Song  of  the  Husbandman,"  A  poem 
<on  the  corruption  of  the  clergy,  1316-17,  "On  the  Times,"  "The 
Complaint  of  the  Plowman,"  "Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede," 
"Song  of  Xego,"  "When  Holy  church  is  under  Foot,"  "Winner 
and  Waster/'  "Sir  Peny^  "Why  I  cannot  be  a  Nun."  "The  Order 
of  Fair  Ease,"  and  "The  Land  of  Cokaygne." 

In  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  not  much  literature  of  any 
kind.  Wc  list  the  following  works  in  satire :  "Jack  Upland," 
"Corruptioti  of  Public  Manners,"  "Corruption  of  the  Times," 
"A  Satirical  Ballad  on  the  Times  by  John  Lydgate ;  also  his  "Tale 
of  Three  score  Folys  and  Thre." 

In  the  sixteenth  century  we  come  to  Barclay's  "Ship  of 
Fools,"  Skelton's,  "Cohm  Cloute,"  "Why  come  Ye  NAT  to 
Courte,"  ""The  Bowge  of  Courte,"  "Elynor  Rummyng."  and  Roy 
and  Barlow's  "Rede  me  and  be  not  Wrothe." 

Not  mentioned  in  tliese  lists  of  satire  is  the  informal  satire 
that  occurs  in  the  miracles  the  manuscripts  of  which  date  from 
the  fifteenth  century  to  the  seventeenth  and  that  in  the  morali- 
ties and  interludes.  It  is  with  these  antecedents  of  the  drama — 
the  regular  drama — that  I  sliall  deal. 

But  first  some  notice  of  the  work  that  has  already  been  done 
upon  the  subject  of  English  satire  is  proper.  Two  able  mono- 
graphs have  been  written — one  by  Raymond  M.  Alden^  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  other  by  Samuel  Marion 
Tucker-  of  Columbia  L^niversity.  The  latter  author's  "Verse 
Satire  Before  the  Renaissance"  is  the  first  link  in  the  history  of 
English  satire  treating  as  it  does  the  period  from  the  twelfth 
century  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth.  The  second  link  is  Dr. 
Alden's  work  which  deals  primarily  with  the  rise  of  formal  satire 
in  English — with  Elizabethan  satire  from  1540  to  1625.  Inci- 
dentally he  surveys  Classical  and  mediaeval  satire  and  compares 
them  in  form,  tone,  subject-matter,  type,  and  style. 

I  agree  with  Dr.  Alden  that  mediaeval  satire  is  informal  irT" 
nature,  occurs  only  incidentally,  is  lacking  in  humor  and  irony, 
and  js  pervaded  by  a  great  moral  earnestness.     I  also  agree  with 


•4 

Dr.  'I'uokcr  tliat  the  satire  in  tlie  miracles,  moralities,  and  inter- 
ludes is  incidental,  and  chaotic,  and  that  it  is  a  very  difficult 
matter  sometimes,  to  decide  whether  the  authors  of  these  crude 
dramas  were  aiming  to  be  comic  or  satiric.  Still,  I  think  that 
this  so-called  drama  does  furnish  many  instances  of  satirical 
touches  some  of  which  Dr.  Tucker  has  cited  in  his  chapter  on  the 
satiric  play. 

What  I  shall  write  will  serve  as  a  supplement  to  Dr.  Tuck- 
er's chapter  and  will,  1  hope,  help  to  make  a  foundation  for  the 
further  study  of  satire  in  the  English  drama. 

Since  the  drama  of  the  period  1450  to  1600  is  itself  crude, 
one  cannot  expect  to  find  any  finished  specimens  of  satire  in  it. 
What  we  shall  find  will  be  satirical  snatches  which  sprang  forth 
almost  instinctively  from  men  who  could  see  corruptions  in  the 
church,  in  politics,  and  in  society,  and  could  not  help  decrying 
them  with  the  hope  of  bringing  about  a  reform.  Throughout  the 
mediaeval  period,  the  church  and  the  state  were  the  main  objects 
of  attack  because  they  had  reached  a  point  when  they  might 
be  said  to  be  in  their  dotage./  The  church  was  corrupt,  the  gov- 
ernment was  corrupt  and  the  people  knew  it  and  resented  it. 
Keen  witted  men  were  tired  of  false  pilgrimages,  penances,  and 
worship  of  images ;  tired  of  the  hypocrisy  of  avaricious  church- 
men who  sold  benefices  and  held  plural  livings;  and  disgusted 
with  the  ignorance  and  immorality  of  the  clergy. 

And  yet  we  do  not  find  much  satire  especially  of  a  religious 
nature  in  the  miracle  plays.  And  this  is  not  strange  for  the 
texts  that  we  have,  were  \vritten  probably  by  men  of  the  church 
who  were  on  the  whole  conservative  and  unwilling  to  criticise 
their  own  institution.  Then,  too,  the  fact  that  the  plays  were, 
in  sonie  cases  at  any  rate,  subject  to  the  censorship  of  an  austere 
cardinal  or  dean  might  account  for  the  lack  of  satire.  But  per- 
haps the  strongest  reason  for  the  scanty  amount  of  satire  lies  in 
I  the  nature  of  the  miracle  plays  themselves.  Their  aim  was  first 
and  always  didactic. 

Somewhat  different  from  the  case  of  the  miracle  plays  is 
that  of  the  moralities.  These  plays  although  at  first  didactic, 
written  to  teach  ethics  rather  than  Biblical  story,  widened  their 
field  until  they  included  pedagogical,  controversial,  and  political 
moralities  as  well  as  the  old  Biblical  type.  Hence  we  may  ex- 
pect to  find  more  satire  in  them  than  in  the  miracles. 


15 

A  still  greater  freedom  of  subject-matter  appears  in  the 
interlude.  We  shall  restrict  the  meaning  of  this  word  to  its 
specific  use  suggested  by  Mr.  Childs,  namely,  that  it  was  a  play 
characterized  by  the  free  use  of  old  materials  and  old  methods 
with  the  object  of  pleasing  rather  than  teaching  the  audience. 


^ 


CHAPTER  II. 


SATIRE   IN   THE   MIRACLE   PLAYS. 

The  miracle  plays  were  by  very  nature  inartistic  in  aim. 
Written  primarily  to  instruct,  they  were  concerned  with  attracting 
the  attention  of  the  rude  and  unlettered  to  the  story  of  the  Bible, 
,  or  with  relating  to  them  miracles  performed  by  saints,  or  episodes 
I  in  the  lives  of  martyrs  from  which  some  lesson  might  be  drawn. 
Being  written  with  the  idea  of  instruction  foremost  and  the  idea 
of  anuisenient  lacking  or  subordinate,  all  miracles  have  to  be 
classed  as  didactic  and  constructive  in  aim.  We  cannot  expect, 
therefore,  much  satire  in  the  miracles  for  satire  is  by  nature 
destructive.  Occasionally  in  some  of  the  pageants  which  were 
run  together  to  form  cycles,  we  find  snatches  of  satire  forced 
in  with  comic  and  secular  material.  We  rarely  find  a  pageant 
which  contains  in  any  great  degree  satiric  matter.  The  best  is 
the  twenty-fifth  pageant  in  the  Ludus  Coventriae  edited  by  J. 
O.  Halliwell. 

In  connection  with  the  reason  that  the  didactic  aim  excludes 
satire,  we  should  consider  the  authors  of  the  cycles,  their  sub- 
ject-matter, and  their  audiences.  First  the  authors  of  the  cycles 
were  priests  and  clerks  who  were  infused  with  the  didactic  not 
the  satiric  aim,  and  who  w.ere  either  too  loyal  or  too  subservient 
to  the  church  to  satirize  her.  Then.  too.  the  subject-matter  of 
"4  the  miracles  was  limited  to  Scriptural  narrative  or  to  legends 
of  saints  or  martyrs.  The  material  was  devotional.  It  did  not 
deal  with  questions  of  government,  with  criticisms  of  church  or 
society.  It  was  not  controversial  or  polemical.  It  was  Biblical. 
Convention  drew  lines  within  which  the  authors  had  to  keep. 
If.  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  the  human  mind  for  interest  and 
variety,  comic  and  realistic  touches  were  added,  they  were  added 
not  in  connection  with  the  main  characters  which  were  conven- 
'  tional  and  therefore  not  to  be  changed,  but  with  the  minor  char- 
1  acters  in  certain  pageants  which  were  largely  the  production  of 
the  imagination  and  not  transcripts  from  Bible  story.  Lastly  the 
audiences  were  made  up  of  all  classes  of  people.     Occasionally 

16 


the  king  and  the  queen  were  present.  There  were  lords  and 
ladies,  churchmen,  citizens,  and  the  rabble.  Take  them  at  their 
best  the  rude  unlettered  element  predominated.  They  were  not 
intellectually  alert;  they  were  not  critical;  they  would  have  been 
incapable  of  appreciating  delicate  satire  had  it  been  presented 
them.  And  satire  was  not  supposed  to  be  given  them.  What 
the  audience  got,  as  the  Church  wished,  was  the  story  of  the  Bible 
pictured  by  living  characters  dressed  in  mediaeval  costume. 

Though  the  cycles  were  apparently  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
they  were  still  close  to  the  church,  not  only  in  authorship  but 
also  in  presentation.  They  were  generally  given  in  connection 
with  the  great  festival  of  the  church  known  as  the  Corpus  Christi 
Procession;  or  they  were  given  at  Whitsuntide  or  occasionally  on 
some  other  Feast  day  in  the  year. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  an  examination  of  the  mir- 
acle cycles  vields  but  few  examples  of  satire.  These  deal  most 
lightly  with  the  clergy  and  with  religious  subjects.  If  any  such 
rude  satire  as  the  Fescennine  verses  of  Rome  found  their  way 
into  the  mouth  of  an  improvising  actor,  we  need  not  expect  to 
find  it  in  our  copies,  for  they  are  undoubtedly  marked  by  modifi- 
cations and  omissions  of  much  that  was  presented.  Our  manu- 
scripts are  late  "Renvid  or  newly  translate"  and  may  have  never 
been  intended  for  playbooks.  The  Chester  manuscripts,  for  in- 
stance, must  owe  their  existence  to  the  desire  of  literary  antiqua- 
ries either  to  preserve  the  old  plays  or  possibly  revive  them  at  a 
time  when  miracle  plays  were  almost  gone  out  of  Fashion." 

No  miracle  cycle  ever  breathes  a  word  of  satire  against  a 
monk.  The  only  men  of  the  church  who  are  even  lightly  touched 
are  priests,  friars,  and  the  Pope.  In  the  Chester  plays,  which 
are  late,  the  Pope  who  is  saved  at  Doomsday  is  made  to  confess 
to  negligence  in  fulfilling  Christ's  commandments  while  the  Pope 
who  is  damned,  bitterly  regrets  his  covetousness  and  simony.  The 
satire  on  priests  and  friars  is  very  faint.  We  have  no  picture  of 
the  fat,  indolent,  begging  friar  or  the  deceitful  pardoner  such  as 
we  find  in  "Jack  Upland"  or  in  the  "Song  on  the  Friars"* — no 
such  picture  as  we  find  in  Chaucer,^  Hey  wood,''  or  Lyndsay.*" 
This  bareness  of  characterization  is  due,  I  think,  to  the  didactic 
nature  of  the  plays,  to  the  class  for  whom  they  were  written  and 
to  the   censorship   of  the   plays.     Chaucer  wrote   for  a   limited 


i8 

reading  public ;  Heywood,  for  an  aristocratic  audience  seated  in 
a  small  hall,  and  not  for  an  immense  out-of-door  audience  of 
common  people.  Lyndsay's  play  is  later  than  the  York  cycle, 
the  Towneley.  and  Ludus  Coventriae  by  almost  a  century.  It 
represents  the  progressive  thought  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  a 
morality  in  Scotland  in  contrast  to  the  conservatism  of  the  Ches- 
ter miracle  cycle.  Lyndsay,  however,  could  well  be  a  little  bolder 
than  the  English  author  or  scribe  for  he  had  the  king  of  Scot- 
land at  his  back. 

Taking  up  the  Chester  cycle  which  is  thought  to  be  one  of 
the  oldest  from  early  accounts  of  its  performance  and  from  the 
time  of  its  performance — Whitsun  week  not  Corpus  Christi  Day, 
we  find  little  religious  satire.  The  play  on  Doomsday,^  however, 
does  represent  two  popes — one  damned,  the  other,  saved — in  the 
embarrassing  situation  of  confessing  their  sins.  Here  are  the 
words  of  the  Papa  Damnatus : 

'"Now  booties  is  toaske  mercye, 
For  livinge  higheste  in  eairth  was  I, 
And  cuninge  chosen  in  cleargye. 
And  covetousness  did  me  care  : 
Also   silver  and   symoneyc 
That   bornes   me   nowe    full    witterlye 
I-'or  lilisse  1  am   full  bare." 

The  infallibility  of  the  Pope  is  a  thing  of  the  past  when  a 
craft  guild  dares  represent  him  before  the  masses  as  guilty  of 
bribery,  simony,  and  covetousness.  But.  as  I  have  said,  the  cycle 
may  have  been  a  literary  attempt.  In  representing  one  pope  as 
damned  and  another  as  saved  we  have  an  instance  of  discrimina- 
tion so  characteristic  of  old  English  writers.  Their  wish  to  be 
fair  rendered  them  incapable  of  representing  all  popes  as  wicked. 
In  this  case,  however,  the  Papa  Salvatus  is  not  shown  as  leading 
an  exemplary  life  for  he  confesses: 

"Thy  great e  godheade.  that  is  so  good 
Me  knewc  1   never,  but  ever  was  woode 
Worshippe  for  to  wyn ;     ...      .      .      .*. 

The  higheste  office  under  thee 

In   eirth   thou   putteith   in 

Thou  graunteste  me.  Lorde,  through  thy  grace 

Petteres  power  and  his  place 

Vet  was  I  blentel  alas!  alas!'" 


19 

When  I  ill  eirth  was  at  my  will 
This  worlde  me  blente  lowde  and  still 
But  thy  commaundmente  to  fulfill 
I   was   full  necligente." " 

There  is  no  religious  satire  in  the  York  plays ;  in  the  Ludus 
Coventriae  the  nearest  approach  to  it  is  a  didactic  hint  by 
Joachim  on  tithe-giving.  After  telHng  how  he  divides  his  goods 
into  three  parts — one  for  himself,  one  for  pilgrims,  and  "por" 
men  and  one  for  the  temple,  he  adds : 

"So  xulde  every  curat  in  this  werde  wyde 
Geve  a  part  to  his  chauncel  i  wys 
A  part  to  his  parocheners  that  to  povert  slyde 
The  thryd  part  to  kepe   for  hym  and  his."  '* 

In  the  remarks  of  the  doctors  in  the  temple,  we  expect  sar- 
casm from  the  nature  of  the  scene  and  their  characters.  One 
scornfully  bids  Jesus : 

"Goo  hom,  lytl  babe,  and  sytt  on  thi  moderes  lappe 
And  put  a  mokador  aforn  thi  brest : 
And  pray  thi  modyr  to  fede  the  with  the  pappe 
Of  the  for  to  lerne  we  desyre  not  to  lest."''' 

Again  we  are  not  surprised  when  the  high-priest  advises 
Pilate  to  bribe  the  soldiers  to  keep  them  from  spreading  the  news 
of  the  Resurrection.  In  his  philosophy  he  reminds  us  of  Lang- 
fend's  Lady  Meed  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

"For  mede  doth   most   in   every  quest 
And  mede  is  mayster  both  est  and  west 
Now  trewly  seres,  I  held  this  best 
With  mede  men  may  bynde  berys." " 

In  the  Crucifixion  scene,  the  words  of  the  executioners  sug- 
gest realistically  the  mocking,  jeering  crowd  of  Jews  mentioned  in 
the  Bible  -.^^ 

"Lo,  fela,  here  a  lyth  takkyd  on  a  tre." 

" and  I  trowe  thou  art  a  worthy  king!" 

"A  good  sere,  tell  me  now  what  helpyth  thi  prophecy  the?" 
" .  or  any  of  thi  fals  prechyng!" 


)C 


"Come  now  down  of  that  tre !" 
"Yf  thu  be  Goddys  sone,  as  thou  dedyst  teche 
ffrom  the  cros  come  now  downe!" 


20 

\j'j  Of  all  miracle  plays,  the  1  ovvneley  contain  the  most  satire, 

I  possibly  because  the  author  or  one  of  the  authors  possessed 
greater  literary  power  than  did  his  contemporaries  and  was  in- 
I*  tellectually  keener  in  seeing  inconsistencies.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, indulge  in  much  religious  satire.  He  evidently  did  not  like 
the  Lollards  for  he  makes  Titivillus  in  the  Doomsday  pageant 
say : 

"1  was  your  chief  tollare 
Nom  am  I   master  lollar  and  of  sicli  men   I   mell  me."  " 

Later  he  boasts  of  having  on  his  lists  of  doomed  souls  some 
men  of  the  church : 

"Yet  of  these  kyrkchaterars  here  ar  a  menee 
Of  bargenars.  okerars   and   lufars   of  symonee."" 

There  may  be  a  slight  trace  of  satire  when  Cain  unwilling  to 
ofTer  tithes  slyly  hints  at  the  uselessness  of  such  a  practice: 

"My   farthyng  is  in  the  preest   hand 
Syn  last  tyme  I  offyrd."" 

Perhaps  it  may  not  be  too  far-fetched  to  see  a  touch  of 
burlesque  when  one  of  the  shepherds  proposes  gathering  up  the 
scraps  of  their  supper : 

"Geder  up,  lo.  lo,  ye  hungre  begers  fifrerys."'" 

And  later  when  Home  chafifs  Gyb  on  his  Latin : 

"What  speke  ye  here  in  myn  eeres? 
Tell  me  no  clerge,  I  hold  you  of  freres 
Ye  preche." "" 

The  interlude  of  Mak  in  the  Shepherds'  Play  undoubtedly 
has  an  idea  of  burlesque  at  its  basis.  The  stolen  sheep  con- 
cealed by  Mak  in  the  cradle ;  the  search  of  the  shepherds  for  their 
stolen  property ;  the  discovery  resulting  from  the  desire  of  one 
of  them  to  make  a  gift  to  Mak's  new-born  child  may  be  a  bur- 
lesque on  what  follows — the  search  of  the  shepherds  for  the 
Christ-Child  and  the  offering  of  the  customary  gifts.  This  bur- 
lesque both  Dean  Joseph  V.  Denney  and  Dr.  George  H.  McKnight 
have  perceived.     I  think  we  may  fairly  classify  this  most  famous 


21 

example  of  early  English  farce  as  a  travesty  written,  however, 
with  no  idea  of  malice. 

Passing  to  the  fragmentary  cycles,  we  find  no  religious  satire  ^ 
in  them  neither  in  the  Non^cli,  the  Newcastle,  the  Coventry  nor 
in  the  Digby  "Killing  of  the  Children."  The  same  thing  is  true  i 
of  the  apparently  independent  plays  on  Abraham  and  Isaac  pre- 
served in  the  Dnjjlin.and  in  the  Brome  manuscripts.  There  is 
a  similar  lack  of  religious  satire  in  the  "Conversion  of  St.  Paul," 
in  "Dux  Moraud,"  and  in  the  "Croxton  Play  of  the  Sacrament." 
But  in  "Mary  Magdalene"  we  do  find  a  trace  of  satire  and  a  rude 
burlesque  of  the  church  service.     The  boy  twits  the  presbyter : 

"Ye  have  so   fellyd'  yower  belly  with  growell 
That  it  growitt  grett  as  the  dywU  of  hell 
Onshaply  thou  art  to  see 
Thi  body  is  so  grett  and  wyde 
That  never  horse  may  thee  byde 
exseptt  thou  breke  his  bakk  asoundyr."  ^ 

After  the  religious  satire  comes  political  and  social  satire  so 
closely  connected  that  I  shall  consider  them  together.  The  Eng- 
lish have  always  felt  that  society  reflected  the  evils  of  politics  and 
even  in  their  earliest  drama  have  shown  signs  of  discontent  in 
their  complaints  against  haughty  lords  and  heavy  taxes.  In  the 
Chester  Plays,  Joseph  complains  of  the  tribute: 

"Poor  men's  weale  is  ever  in  were 
I  wan  no  good  this  seven  yeaire 
Now  comes  the  king's  messingere 
To  gette  all  that  he  maye."  '^ 

The  imperator  confesses  to  gluttony,  covetousness,  and 
manslaughter ; 

"Wrong  ever   I   wroughte  to  ech   wighte 
For  pynchynge  poore  in  paine  I  pig'hte 
Religion  I  reaved  against  the  righte""' 

The  justice  remembers  with  contrition  his  past  life  and  con- 
fesses at  the  judgment  seat: 

" falses  causes  took  in   hande 

And   moche  wooe   did   elles 

When   I   soughte  silver  or   riches   founde,   of  baron,   burges   or  of   baude- 

His  matter  to  further  ever  I  would  founde  were  it  never  so  false 


22 

All  my  life  I  was  ever  boune 

To  troble  poore  in  tower  and  towne 

Payn  holye  churches  possession 

And  sharply  them  to  shendt- 

To  reve  and  robbc  religion 

That  was  all  my  devocion."-* 

These  instances  are  in  a  sense  political,  but  those  to  follow 
are  social  dealing  with  classes  of  people,  with  merchants,  tap- 
sters, brewers,  and  with  the  conventional  satire  on  woman.  For 
example,  the  merchant  confesses  to  having  purchased  land  falsely; 
having  "occured  and  used  wilfully";  and  to  having  .staid  at  home 
from  church.  The  mulier  in  the  "Harrowing  of  Hell"  also  con- 
fesses to  deception.  She  has  sold  adulterated  ale  and  used  false 
measures : 

"Some  tyme  I  was  a  tavernere, 

A  gentill  gossipe  and  a  tapstere 

Of  wyne  and  ale  a  trustie  brewer. 

Which  wo  hath  we  wroughte 

Of  Cannes  I  kepte  no  trewe  measuer, 

My  cuppes  I  soulde  at  my  pleasuer 

Deceavinge  manye  a  creature, 

Tho  my  ale  were  naughte, 

And  when  I  was  a  brewer  longe 

With  hoopes  I  made  my  ale  stronge 

Ashes  and  erbes   I   blende  anionge 

And  marred   so  good  maulte 

Therfore   I   maye  my  handes  wringe 

Shake  my  cannes  and  cuppes  ringe 

Sorowfull   maie  I   sicke  and   singe 

That  ever  I  so  dealed. 

Taverners.  tapsters  of  this  cittie 

Shal  be  promoted  heare  by  me 

For  breaking  statutes  of  this  countrey 

Hurtinge  the  commonwelth !""' 

Noah  says  of  women  : 

"Wemen  be  crabbed  aye 
And  non  are  meke  I  dare  well  say."""* 

The  third   shepherd  expresses  the  same  conventional  idea: 

"I'or  to  good  men  this  is  not  unknowne 
To  husbandes  that  be  heare  aboutes 
That  iche  man  must  to  his  wife  bownc. 
And  conunonlye  for  fear  of  a  clowte."'""' 


23  'A 

In  the  Cornish  plays  there  is  a  hint  of  inconsistency 
in  the  actions  of  pubHc  officials,  for  instance,  Pilate  is  anxious  to 
hush  up  a  matter  when  he  sees  danger  threatening  himself.  He 
has  just  bitterly  reproved  the  soldiers  for  having  let  Jesus  escape, 
but  when  they  in  turn  demand  of  him  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  who 
have  miraculously  escaped,  he  becomes  very  pleasant.  They, 
however,  reply  with  a  touch  of  irony : 

"Since  thou  art  so  courteous 
We  will  do  as  thou  sayest.""* 

The  Ludus  Coventriae  has  a  trace  of  political  satire,  class 
satire  on  the  summoner,  satire  on  fashions,  and  the  conventional 
satire  on  woman;  of  this,  Joseph  is  the  spokesman.  After  stren- 
uously objecting  to  the  decision  of  the  blossoming  rods,  he  reluc- 
4:antly  becomes  a  bridegroom.     But  hear  his  protest : 

"What  xuld  I  wedde?     God  forbede 
I  am  an  old  man,  so  God  me  spede, 
And  wyth  a  wyff  now  to  levj'n  in  drede 
It  wore  neyther  sport  nere  game 

"An  old  man  may  never  thryff 
With  a  yonge  wyff  so  God  me  save ! 
Xuld  I  now  in  age  begynne  to  dote, 
If  I  here  chyde  she  wolde  clowte  my  cote 
Blere  myn  ey,  and  pyke  out  a  mote 
And  thus  oft^^n  tymes  it   is  sene.""' 

Later  he  advises  men  against  marriage  saying : 

" alle  olde  men  to  me  take  tent 

And  weddyth  no  wyff  in  kynnys  wyse 

That  is  a  yonge  wenche  be  myne  asent 

ffor  doute  and  drede  and  swyche  servyse 

Alas  !  alas  !  my  name  is  shent ! 

Alle  men  may  me  now  dyspj^se 

And  seyn,  "olde  cokwold  thi  bowe  is  bent 

Newly  now  after  the  Frenche  gyse."*" 

And  finally  he  concludes  with  a  proverb  verified  as  he  thinks : 

"Here  may  alle  men  this  proverb  trow 
That  many  a  man  doth  bete  the  bow 
Another  man  hath  the  brydde.'"^ 


24 

The  summoner  is  represented  as  abusive  and  corrupt.  He 
is  evidently  avaricious,  for  after  reading  a  list  of  names  of  the 
people  who  should  appear  at  court,  he  advises  them  to  come 
with  money  if  they  exj)ect  to  win  their  case: 

"And  loke  ye  ryiige  wele  in  your  purs 
ffor  ellys  your  cause  may  specie  the  wurs."" 

In  summoning  Mary  and  Joseph  he  makes  a  threat  thor- 
oughly in  character  with  the  usual  idea  of  the  summoner : 

"But  yet  sum  mede  and  ye  me  take 
I  wyl  with  draws  my  gret  rough  toth 
Gold  or  sylvyr  I  wyl  not  forsake 
But  evyn  as  all  somnores  doth.'"" 

In  the  sixth  pageant  there  is  a  contrast  drawn  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  but  I  think  it  can  hardly  be  called  satire. 

"ffor   ryche   men    do   shewe   oftyntymes   pompe   and   pride 
on  holy  dayes,  as  oftyn  is  sene 
Whan  pore  men  passe  and  go  besyde 
At  wurthy  festys  rich  men  wolle  bene."^* 

The  first  shepherd  in  the  sixteenth  pageant  pathetically  re- 
veals the  hardships  of  the  poor: 

"Myght  we  se  onys  that  bryght  on  bed 
Oure  sorow  it  wolde  unbynde 
We  xulde  shadyr  for  no  shoure.'"" 

Joseph  also  shrinks  and  complains  of  his  hard  lot: 

"Lord  what  travayl  to  man  is  wrought 
Rest  in  this  werd  behovyth  hym  non 
Octavyan  our  emperor  sadly  hath  besought 
Our  trybute  hym  to  here,  ffolk  must  forth  ichon.'"' 

In  the   twenty-fifth   pageant   of   this   cycle,   we  find    Satan 
dressed  as  a  gallant,  haranguing  the  people.     In  his  speech  occurs 
•  the  strongest  satire  in  the  miracles.     He  advises  the  assembled 
spectators  to  gather  a  fellowship  after  their  own  "entent" : 

"A  beggerys  dowtcre  to  make  gret  purvyauns 
To  cowntcrfcte  a  gentylwoman  dysguyscd  as  she  can 
Ajid  yf  mony  lakko,  this  is  the  ncwe  chevesauns 


25 

With  her  prevy  plesawns  to  gett  it  of  sum  man 

Her  colere  splayed  and  furryd  with  ermyn  calabre  or  satan : 

A  seyn  to  sell  lechery  to  hem  that  wyl  buy 

And  thei  that  wyl  not  by  it,  yet  inow  xal  thei  han 

And  telle  hem  it  is  for  love,  she  may  it  not  deney." 

He  is  very  explicit  on  the  proper  dress  of  a  gallant : 

"Off  fyne  cordewan  a  goodly  peyre  of  long  pekyd  schon 
Hosyn  enclosyd  of  the  most  costyous  cloth  of  cremseyn 
Thus  a  bey  to  a  gentleman  to  make  comparycion 
With  two  doseyn  poyntys  of  chevrell,  the  aglottes  of  sylver  feyn. 

"A  shert  of   feyn   Holond,  but  care   for  the  payment 
A  stomacher  of  clere   reynes  the  best  may  be  browth 
Thow  poverte  be  chef,  lete  pride  be  ther  present 
And  all  tho  that  repreff  pride,  thou  sette  hem  at  nowth. 

"Cadace  wolle  or  flokkys  where  it  may  be  sowth 
To  stuffe  withal  thi  dobbelet,  and  make  the  of  proporcyon 
Two  smale  legges  and  a  gret  body,  thow  it  ryme  nowth. 
Yet  loke  that  thou  desyre  to  an  the  newe  faccion. 

''A  gowne  of  thre  yerdys,  loke  thou  make  comparison 
Uuto  all  degrees  dayly  that  passe  thin  astat 
A  purse  withoutyn  mony,  a  daggere  for  devocyon 
And  ther  repref  is  of  synne,  loke  thou  make  .debat. 

"With  syde  lokkys  I  schrewe  thin  here  to  thi  colere  hangyng  downe. 
To  herborwe  queke  bestys  that  tekele  men  onyth 
An  heye  smal  bonet  for  curing  of  the  crowne 
And  alle  beggeres  and  pore  pepyll  have  hem  in  dyspyte. 

"Onto  the  grete  othys  and  lecherye  gyff  thi  delyte         *^ 
To  maynteyn  thin  astate  lete  brybory  be  present 
And  yf  the  law  repreve  the,  say  thow  wylt  ffyth, 
And  gadere  the  a  felashep  after  thin  entent. 

"Loke  thou  sett  not  be  precept  nor  be  comawndement 
Both  sevyls  and  canon  sett  thow  at  nowth 
Lette  no  membre  of  God  but  with  othys  be  rent."" 

This  long  tirade  is  really  a  sermon  in  satire.  Those  who  give 
themselves  up  to  oaths,  foolish  fashions,  hypocrisy,  and  im- 
morality are  but  following  the  advice  of  the  devil.  The  method  of 
attack — irony — is  much  more  effective  than  any  direct  rebuke  or 
generalized  lament  and  the  idea  of  making  the  devil  the  mouth- 


26 

piece  of  the  ironical  advice  was  a  happy  thought  on  the  part  of 
the  author ;  his  chief  lesson  was  spoken  not  by  some  pious  ab- 
straction but  by  the  devil,  a  character  who  never  failed  to  attract 
attention. 

The  Towneley  cycle  contains  more  satire  than  the  other 
miracles,  but  the  subject-matter  is  much  the  same, — satire  on 
woman,  on  classes,  on  misgovemment,  and  on  fashions.  It  has 
no  satire,  however,  as  bitterly  ironical  as  the  quotation  just  given 
from  the  Ludus  Coventriae.  The  pageant  which  furnishes  the 
greatest  opportunity  for  satire  is,  as  in  the  Chester  Plays  the 
"Juditium." 

In  this  play  the  demon,  Titivillus,  refers  to  misgovemment 
when  he  spreads  out  his  rolls  and  says  triumphantly  of  the 
doomed  souls  whom  he  is  soon  to  summon  before  the  tribunal 
of  the  Lord : 

"Thise  rolles 
Ar  of  bakbytars 
And   fals   indytars.'"' 

also  when  he  speaks  of  the  oppression  of  the  poor 

"The  pore  pepyll  must  pay  if  oght  be  in  honde 
The  drede  of  God  is  away  and  lawe  out  of  lande.""" 


"fals  swerars  shall  hider  com  mo  then  a  thowsand  skore 
In  sweryng  thai  grefe  godys  son  and  payn  hym  more  and  more 
Therfor  mon  thai  with  us  won  in  hell  for  ever  more 

I  say  this 
That  rasers  of  the  fals  tax 

And  gederars  of  greyn  wax 
Diabolus  est  mendax 
Et  pater  eius."'"' 

The  speeches  of  both  Pilate  and  Caiaphas  are  satire  on  the 
law.    Pilate  in  his  boastful  way  begins: 

"ffor  I  am  he  that  may  make  or  mar  a  man 
myself  if  I  it  say  as  men  of  cowrte  now  can 
Supporte  a  man  today  to  morn  agans  hym  than 
On  both  parties  than  I  play 
And  fenys  me  to  ordan  the  ryght. 
But  all  fals  indytars 
Quest  mongers  and  Lurers 
And  all  thise  fals  out  rydars 
Ar  welcom  to  my  sight."" 


^7 

In  pageant  twenty-two,  he  again  shows  his  hypocrisy : 

"ffor  like  as  on  both  sydys  the  iren  the  hamer  makith  playn 
So  do  I,  that  the  law  has  here  in  my  kepyng 
The  right  side  to  socoure,  certys,  I  am  full  bayn 
If  I  may  get  therby  vantege  or  wynyng : 
Then  to  the  fals  parte  I  turne  me  agayn 
ffor  I  se  more  vayll  will  to  me  be  risyng 
Thus  every  man  to  drede  me  shal  be  full  fayn 
And  all  faynt  of  thare  fayth  to  me  be  obeyng."*^ 

Caiaphas  speech,  terse  and  to  the  point  leaves  the  same  im- 
pression  of   double-dealing: 

"Whoso  kepis  the  lawe,  I  gess 
he  gettis  more  by  parches 
Then  bi  his  fre  rent."" 

The  conditions  of  the  poor  are  reflected  in  the  first  and  in 
the  second  Shepherds'  Play.  The  first  shepherd  complains  of 
the  ta^: 

"ffermes  thyk  are  comyng.  my  purs  is  bot  wake 
I   have  nerehand  nothynge  to  pay  nor  to  take."" 

The  second  shepherd,  also,  has  a  grievance.  He  is  tired  of 
the  oppression  and  arrogance  of  upstarts — retainers  of  the  great 
lords.    He  prays : 

"Both  bosters  and  bragers  god  kepe  us  fro, 
That  with  thare  long  dagers  dos  mekyll  wo ; 
fifrom  all  byll  hagers  with  colknyfys  that  go 
Sich  wryers  and  wragers  gose  to  and  fro 

fifor  to  crak. 
who  says  hym  agane 
Were  better  be  slane 
Both  plogh  and  wane. 
Amendys  will  not  make. 

He  will  make  it  as  proud  a  lorde  he  were 

with  a  hede  lyke  a  clowde  flfeltered  his  here 

He  spekys  on  lowde  with  a  grym  here 

I  wold  not  have  trowde  so  gayly  in  gere 

As   he   glydys 

I  wote  not  the  better 

Nor  wheder  is  gretter 

The  lad  or  the  master 


So  st(jwtly  he  strydys 

If  he  aske  ine  oght  that  he  wold  to  his  pay, 

fFul  dere  bese  it  boght  if  I  say  nay."" 

In  pageant  XII  p.  103  i.  92  the  first  shepherd  continues  the 
lament 

"Is   none   in   this   ryke   a   shepard   farys  wars." 

The  second  rejoins : 

"Poore  men  ar   in   the   dyke   and   ofttyme   mars 
The  world  is  slyke,  also  helpars 
Is  none  here."" 

1/      In  the  Second  Shepherds'  Play  there  is  the  same  complaint 
of  oppression : 

"But  we  sely  shepardes  that  walkyn  on  the  moore. 
In  fayth  we  are  nere  handys  outt  of  the  dore 
No  wonder  as  it  standys  if  we  be  poore 
ffor  the  tylthe  of  our  landys  ys  falow  as  the  flore 

As  ye  ken 

We  ar  so  hamyd 

ffortaxed  and  hand  tamyd 

with  thyse  gentlery  men, 

"Thus  thay  refe  us  oure  rest  oure  lady  theym  wary 
These  men  that  ar  lord  fest  cause  thay  the  ploughe  tary 
That  men  say  is  for  the  beste  we  fynde  it  contrary 
Thus  ar  husbandys  opprest  in  pointe  to  myscary 

On  lyfe. 
Thus  hold  thay  vs  hunder 
Thus  thay  bryng  vs  in  blonder 

It  were  greatte  wonder 
And  ever  shuld  we  thryfe. 


ffor  may  he  gett  a  paynt  slefe  or  a  broche  now  on  dayes 
wo  is  hym  that  hym  grefe  or  onyst  agane  says 
Dar  noman   hym  reprefe  what  mastry  he  mays 
And  yet  may  noman  lef  none  word  that  he  says 

No  letter. 
He  can  make  purveance 
With  boste  and  bragance 
And  all  is  thrugh  mantenance 
Of  men  that  are  gretter. 


"Ther  shall  com  a  swane  as  prowde  as  a  po 
he  must  borow  my  wane,  my  ploghe  also 
Them  I  am  full  fane  to  graunt  or  he  go, 
Thus  lyf  we  in  payn.  Anger,  and  wo 

By  nyght  and  day ! 
He  must  have  if  he  langyd 

If  I  shuld  forgang  it 
I  were  better  be  hangyd 
Then  oones  say  hym  nay. 


"Thise  laddys  thai  leven  as  lordys  riall."" 

Titivillus    indulges    in   class    satire   when   he   describes    the 
misers : 

"Thar  neghburs  thai  towchid   with   wordys   full   ill 
The  wurst  ay  thai  sowchid  and  had  no  skill 


The  pennys  thai  powchid  and  held  thaym  still  '  : 

The  negons  thai  mowchid  and  brad  no  will 

ffor  hart  fare 
Bot  riche  and  ill-dedy 
Gederand  and  gredy 
Sore  napand  and  nedy 
Youre  godys   for  to  spare."" 

The  intemperate  also  come  in  for  a  share  of  his  abuse . 

"Thai   call   arid   thai   cry  go  we  now,  go ! 
I  dy  nere  for  dry  and  ther  syt  thai  so 
All  nyght 

With  hawvell  and  lawvell 
Syngyng  of  lawvell 
Thise  ar  howndys  of  hell."" 

Dice  players  are  given  a  bad  character : 

"Thise    dysars    and    thise    hullars 
Thise  cokkers  and  thise  hollars 
And  all  purs-cuttars 

Bese  well  war  of  thise  men."'"' 

The  general  wickedness  of  the  world  is  shown  by  the  number 
of  souls  who  seek  admittance  into  hell.  The  devil  Titivillus  in 
despair  exclaims  : 

"Saules  cam  so  tliyk  now  late  unto  hell 
.As  ever 
Oure  porter  at  hell  gate 


30 

Is  haldyn  so  strate 
Up  erly  and  down  late 
he  rystys  never."" 

"^  On  dress  there  is  the  following  tirade : 

"Gay  gcre  and  witless  his  hoode  set  on  koket, 
As  prowde  as  pennyles  his  slefe  has  no  poket, 

fful  redles ; 
With  thare  hemmyd  shoyn 
All  this  must  be  done 
Bot  syre  is  out  at   hye  noyn 
And  his  barnes  bredeles. 

"A  home  and  a  duch  ax  his  slefe  must  be  flekyt 
A  syde  hede  and  a  fare  fax  his  gowne  must  be  spekytt."" 

also — 

"An  Nell  with  hir  nyfyls  of  crips  and  of  sylke 
Tent  well  youre  twyfyls  youre  nek  abowte  as  mylke 
With  your  bendys  and  your  bridyyls  of   Sathan — ''" 

In  pageant  XXX,  Titivillus  driving  the  lost  souls  before  him, 
sarcastically  reminds  them  of  their  vanity : 

"Gay   gyrdyls,   jagged   hode.   prankyd   gownes,   whedir?"" 

This  was  aimed  at  the  men  as  well  as  at  the  women.  The 
men,  however,  are  not  satirized  as  a  class.  The  women  are : 
the  Wakefield  dramatist  seems  to  find  great  pleasure  in  ridiculing 
their  shrewishness  and  their  vanity.  Noah's  wife  expresses  her- 
self on  the  troubles  of  inarried  life  and  wishes  for  freedom. 
She  speaks  according  to  the  shrewish  character  that  is  given  her 
in  all  the  miracle  cycles  except  the  Ludus  Conventriae  and  the 
Cornish. 

"Lord,  I  were  at  ese  and  hertly  full  hoylle 
Might  I  onys  have  a  measse  of  wedows  coyll ; 
ffor  thi  saul.  without  lese  shuld  I  dele  penny  doyll 
So  wold  mo,  no  frese,  that  1   se  on  this  sole 
Of  witis  that  ar  here, 
flfor  the  life  that  thay  leyd 
Wold  thare  husbandis  were  dede 
ffor,  as  ever  I  ate  brede 
So  wold   I   oure  svre  were."'^' 


31 

We  get  the  other  side  of  the  story  when  Noah  complains  of 
his  wife's  irritabiHty : 

"flfor  she   is    full   tethee 
ffor  littill  oft  angre 
If  any  thyng  wrang  be 
Soyne  is  she  wroth."** 

* 

And  also  when  he  advises  young  men  on  the  management  of 
their  wives : 

■'Yee  men  that  has  wifis  whyls  they  are  yong 
If  ye  luf  youre  iifis  chastice  thare  tong."" 

Joseph,  too,  complains  saying  of  Mary: 

"Certys  I   forthynk  sore  of  hir  dede 
Bot  is  long  of  yowth-hede 
All  sich  wanton  playes ; 
flfor  yong  women  wyll  nedys  play  them"  " 


Of  the  same  nature  is  the  proverb  which  Gyb  quotes  to  his 
fellow-shepherds : 

"A  man   may  not  wyfe 
And  also  thryfe 
And  all  in  a  yere."^ 

A   similar   complaint   against   marriage    follows    in   pageant 
thirteen : 

"These  men  that  ar  wed  have  not  all  thare  wyll 
When  they  ar  full  hard  sted  thay  sygh  full  styll 
God  wayte  thay  ar  led  full  hard  and  full  yll, 
In  bower  nor  in  bed  thay  say  noght  ther  tyll 
This  tyde.  • 


Wo  is  hym  that  is  bun 
flfor  he  must  abvde 


Som  men  wyll  have  two  wyfis  and  som  men  thre, 

In  store 

Some  are  wo  that  has  any. 

But  so  far  can  I 

Wo  is  hym  that  has  many 

flfor  he   felys  sore. 


32 

"Bot  yong  men  of  wowyng  for  God  that  you  boght 
Be  well  war  of  wedying  and  thynk  in  youre  thoght 
'had  I  wyst'is  a  thyng  it  scmys  of  noght 
Mekyll  styll  movvrnyng  has  wedyng  home  broght, 

And  grefys. 
With  many  a  sharp  showre 
fFor  thou  may  cache  in  an  owre 
That  Ihall  (savour)  fulle  sowre 
As  long  as  thou  lyfifys.""" 

In  pageant  XXXVIII,  Paul  is  quoted  as  saying: 

"Ther  is  no  trust  in  woman's  saw 
No  trast  forth  to  belefe 
ffoT  with  thare  quayntyse  and  thare  gyle 
Can  they  laghc  and  wepe  som  while 
And  yit  nothyng  theym  grefe. 

"In  our  bookes  thus  fynde  we  wretyn 
All  manere  of  men  well  it  wyttyn 

Of  women  on  this  wyse  ; 
Till  an  appyl  she  is  lyke — 
Withoutten  faill  ther  is  non  slyke 

In  horde  ther  it  lyse. 

Bot  if  a  man  assay  it  witterly 
It  is  full  roten  inwardly 
At  the  colke  within ; 
Wherfor  in  woman  is  no  laghe 
fifor  she  is  withoutten  aghe 
As  Crist  me  lowse  of  syn 
Thcrfor  trast  we  not  trystely 
Bot  if  we  sagh  it  witterly 
Than  wold  we  trastly  trow- 
In  womans  saw  affy  we  noght 
ffor  thay  ar  fekill  in  word  and  thoght.""' 

Even  doubting  Thomas  takes  up  the  wearisome  subject  when 
he  says  to  his  awe-stricken  companions : 

"^'e  ar  as  women   rad   for  blood  and   lyghtly  oft  solaced 
it  was  a  ghost  before  you  stood.""" 

In  pageant  XXX  .some  satirical  dialogue  passes  between  th« 
demons  as  they  look  over  their  rolls: 

"has  thou  oght  writcn  there  of  the  femynyn  genderc?" 
"Yci,  mo  then  1   may  here  of  rolles  for  to  render 
Thai  ar  sliarp  as  a  spero  if  thai  seme  but  slender 


33 

Thai  ar  ever  in  were  if  thai  be  tender 

yll  fetyld 
She  that  is  most  meke 
When  she  semys  full  seke 
She  can  rase  up  a  reke 

if  she  be  well  nettyld.""' 

"Of  femellys  a  quantite  here  fynde  I  parte."** 

On  woman's  vanity  and  deceitfulness  there  is  the  following: 

'"If  she  be  never  so  fowll  a  dowde  with  her  kelles  and  her  pynnes 
The  shrew  hir  self  can  shrowde  both  hir  chekys  and  hir  chynnes 
She  can  make  it  full  prowde  with  japes  and  with  gynnes 
hir  hede  as  hy  as  a  clowde  bot  no  shame  of  hir  synnes 

Thai  f  ele : 
When  she  is  thus  paynt 
She  makys  it  so  quaynte 
She  lookys  like  a  saynte 
And  wars  then  the  dayle 

"She  is  hornyd  like  a  cow — "'" 

Joseph's  complaint  of  marriage  is  as  follows : 

"howsehold  and  husbandry 
fiful  sore  it  may  ban 
That  bargan  dere  I  by 
Yong  men,  bewar,  red  I 
Wedjmg  makes  me  all  wan."** 

Of  the  independent  plays  possibly  once  forming  part  of  a 
cycle,  the  Norwich,  the  Newcastle,  and  the  two  plays  on  Abra- 
ham and  Isaac  are  not  satirical.  The  two  Coventry  plays,  how- 
ever, show  satire  on  woman.  Here  as  in  the  complete  cycles, 
Joseph  complains  at  length  i**' 

"Wele-awey !  woman  now  may   I   goo 
Begyld  as  many  another  ys." 

"For  the  that  woll  nott  there  wyffis  plese 
Ofte  tymes  schall  suffur  moche  dysees  ! 

Therefore  I  holde  hym  well  at  es 
That  hathe  doo  with  non. 

"So  full  of  feyre  wordis  these  wemen  be 
Thatt  men  thereto  must  nedis  agre." 

The  maner  of  my  wyff  ys  soo 
,S  That  with  hvr  nedis  must  I  goo 


34 

Wheddur  1   wyll  or  iiyl!. 
Now  ys  nott   tliis  a  cumlmrs   lytT? 
Loo,  sirs,  what  yit  ys  to  have  a  wyfF. 
Vet  had  I  leyvcr,  nor  to  live  in  stryff 
Apply  c'vyii  to  hir  wyll." 

In  the  Digby  "Killing  of  the  Children",  Watkyn  the  boast- 
ful soldier  is  represented  as  very  fearful  of  an  angry  woman. 
His  remarks  can  scarcely  be  called  satire,  but  they  do  show  the 
fondness  of  the  mediaeval  author  for  twitting  woman : 

"But  yitt  1   drede  no  thyng  more  than  a  woman  with  a  Rokke 
ffor  if  I  se  ony  suche,  he  my  feith  I  come  agen.""" 

"The  Conversion  of  St.  Paul"  shows  sarcasm  in  the  remarks 
of  Saul's  servant  to  the  hostler ;  and  the  "Croxton  Play  of  the 
Sacrament"  has  a  comic  character  Colle  take  ofif  the  failing  of 
his  master.  Doctor  Brendyche  of  Brabant : 

"He  ys  a  man  off  all  scyence 
But  off  thryfte — I  may  yow  dyspence ! 
He  syttyth  with  sum  tapstere  in  the  spence 
Hys  hoode  there  wyll  he  sell 
He  seeth  as  well  at  noone  as  at  nyght 
And  sumtyme  by  a  candelleyt 
Can  gyff  a  judgment  aryght 
As  he  that  hath  no  eyn 
In  every  taverne  he  ys  detter.""" 

The  satire  in  the  miracle  plays,  cyclic  and  non-cyclic,  is  for 
the  most  part  general  and  conventional.  There  is  the  satire  on 
woman ;  that  on  the  clergy  somewhat  limited  in  amount  and 
scope,  it  is  true,  but  nevertheless  depicting  the  Pope  as  guilty 
of  simony  and  covetousness  and  hinting  that  perhaps  tithe-giving 
was  a  useless  practice.  We  have  only  to  look  to  the  early  poems 
and  songs  in  English  to  see  how  meagre  and  weak  these  dramas 
are  in  the  satirical  quality.  For  example,  note  the  "Song  against 
the  Friars."  The  first  stanza  makes  them  more  devout  than 
monks,  priests,  or  canons.     The  second  ironically  continues : 

"Men  may  se  by  thair  contynaunce 
That  thai  are  men  of  grete  penaunce 
And  also  that  thair  sustynauncc 

Symple   is  and   wayke. 
I  have  lyved  now  fourty  yere 
.  And  fatter  men  about  the  ncres 


35 

Yit  sawe  I  never  then  are  these  frers 
In  contreys  ther  thai  rayke 
Meteles  so  megre  are  thai  made 
And  penaunces  puttes  hem  doun 
That  ichon  is  an  hors  lade 
When  he  shall  trusse  of  town."™ 

The  nearest  approach  to  any  thing  like  it  in  length  or  satirical 
power  is  the  twenty-fifth  pageant  of  Ludus  Coventriae  in  w^iich 
Lucifer  satirizes  fashions,  hypocrisy,  and  immorality. 

The  strongest  satire  is   foimd  in  the  Chester  Plays,  in  the  ' 
Ludits  Coventriae.  and  in  the  Towneley  collection.    As  to  quantity 
and  variety,  the  Towneley  cycle  heads  the  list. 

The  subjects  of  miracle  satire  range  over  pope,  friar,  priest, 
Lollard;  over  imperator.  rex.  lord,  lawyer,  questmonger.  justice, 
tax-collector,  summoner.  merchant,  and  tapster.  It  attacks  drink- 
ing, dicing,  miserliness,  women,  fashions,  hypocrisy,  bribery,  the 
oppression  of  the  poor,  the  arrogance  of  lords  and  upstarts,  and 
the  failure  of  officials  to  execute  the  laws.  There  are.  however, 
but  few  references  to  each  of  the  following — Lollards,  friars, 
priests,  and  popes.  The  men  of  the  church  were  not  so  far  as 
we  can  determine  from  the  plays  subject  to  any  satire  other  than 
a  chance  sling,  such  as  ridicule  of  their  Latin  and  of  their  custom 
of  begging.  Monks  go  scot-free  perhaps  because  monkish  au- 
thors considered  it  a  violation  of  good  taste  and  good  sense  to 
ridicule  their  own  institution  and  its  members  before  a  demo- 
cratic audience — an  audience  whose  esteem  they  wished  to  keep. 
The  Pope  is  nowhere  mentioned  in  the  fifteenth  century  manu- 
scripts of  miracles.  It  is  only  in  the  late  Chester  Plays  of  the  six- 
teenth century  and  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  that  he  is 
shown  in  the  Doomsday  pageant.  There  the  Dance  of  Death' 
motife  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  his  admission. 

The  oppression  of  the  poor  was  a  favorite  subject.  Joseph  »/ 
and  the  shepherds  complain  of  taxes  and  hardships.  The  Towne- 
ley Plays  add  to  the  taxes  the  insults  which  the  poor  had  to  suffer 
at  the  hands  of  swaggering  upstarts  and  others  who  did  much  as 
they  pleased,  supported  as  they  were  by  the  maintenance  of  some 
great  lord  whose  livery  they  wore.  Here  we  come  close  to  the 
satire  found  in  the  morality  "Wisdom"  which  was  of  the  same 
period  as  the  Towneley  Plays ;  and  to  that  of  the  fourteenth 
century  poem  "On  the  Servants  of  the  Rich." 


CHAPTER  III. 


STAIRE   IN   THE    PKE-TUDOR   MORALITIES. 

According  to  Creizenach  literary  historians  liave  given  the 
name  morality  to  all  plays  written  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  characters 
of  which  are  wholly  or  mainly  personified  abstractions.  For 
studying  these  plays,  the  classification  of  the  Cambridge  History 
of  English  Literature'  seems  best.  This  groups  them  under  the 
following  heads:  (i)  IVe-Tudor  Mtjralities.  (2)  Rarlicr  Tudor 
Moralities,  (3)   Elizabethan  Moralities. 

Classified  as  Pre-Tudor  Moralities  are  the  following  plays: 
the  "Pride  of  Life".  "The  Castle  of  E^erseverance".  "Mind.  Will 
and  Un:ierstanding''.  and  "Mankind".  These  plays  have  been' 
given  the  following  dates  l)y  scholars:'  1410.  1425.  1460-3.  1475. 
They  are  the  earliest  specimens  of  English  Moralities  extant.  As 
the  dates  show  they  were  contemporary  with  the  miracle  cycles. 
"Wisdom"  or  "Mind  Will  and  L^nr'erstanding"  ;  and  "Mankind'' 
have  approximately  the  same  date  as  the  "York  Plays",  the 
"Ludus  Coventriae",  and  the  Towneley  Plays.  We  have  found 
some  satire  in  the  miracles;  we  may  expect  to  find  a  greater 
amount  in  the  moralities  since  they  f'ealt  with  questions  of 
ethics,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  discuss  social,  political,  and 
religious  problems ;  and  since  they  were  often  in  their  early 
history  and  almost  exclusively  in  their  later  productions, 
presented  before  an  aristocratic  and  therefore  a  limited 
audience.  "Wisdom"  was  probably  jDresented  in  an  abbey 
before  a  body  of  monks.  Its  author  was  in  all  ))roba- 
bility  a  monk  who  felt  called  upon  to  satirize  the 
growing  spirit  of  apostasy  among  the  monks  and  the  practice  of 
maintenance  among  the  lords  and  the  nobles.  On  the  other  hand 
"The  Castle  of  Perseverance"  from  its  unique  stage-drawing 
must  have  been  presented  out  of  doors  and  before  an  immense 
popular  audience  possibly  very  much  the  same  kind  of  audienc^ 
as  gathered  to  see  the  "Ludus  Coventriae"  which  from  stage- 
directions''  must  have  been  presented  on  a  fixed  stage  with  several 


37 

pageants.    Whether  these  were  arranged  in  a  circle  or  not,  we  do 
not  know. 

The_satire  in  the  oldest  morality,  "The  Pride  of  Life"  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  generalized  lament  spoken  by  a  bishop  who  sees 
nothing  but  evil  in  the  times.  The  world  no  longer  reverences 
God ;  might  makes  right ;  the  rich  oppress  the  poor ;  and  the 
people  are  given  up  to  bribery,  lechery,  and  gluttony.  Here  is 
his  criticism  of  the  age:* 

"Ye  world  is  nou,   so  wo   lo   wo 
in  sue  bal  i  bound 
yat  dred  of  god  is  al  ago 
&treut  is  go  to  ground 

"med  is  mad  a  demis  man 
streyint  bet  it  ye  lau 
gocyl  is  mad  a  cepman 
&truyt   is  don   of  dau. 

"Wyt  is  nou  al  trecuri 
oyis  fals  &gret 
play  is  nou  uileny 
&corteysi  is  let 

"lou  is  nou  al  lecuri 

cildrin  bet  onlerit ; 

halli^ay  is  gloWni : 
'  yis  Ian  is  bot  irerit. 

"slot  men  blet  bleynd 
&lokit  al  amis    _, 
he  bicomit  onkynd 
&yat  is  reut  i  uis 

"frend  may  no  man  find 
of  fremit  ne  of  sib 
ye  ded  bet  out  of  mind 
gret  soru  it  is  to  lib. 

"Yes   ricmen   bet   reuthyles, 
ye  por  got  to  ground, 
&fals  men  bet  schanles : 
the  sot  ic  hau  i  found 


"paraventur  men  halt  me  a  fol 
to  sig  yat   fot  tal ; 
yai   farit  as  ficis  in  a  pol ; 
ye  gret  eteit  ye  smal. 


38 

"ric  men  spart  for  noying 
to  do  the  por  worng; 
yai  yingit  not  on  hen  ending 
ne  on  det,  yat  is  so  strong. 

"noyir  yai  louit  god,  ne  dredit 
noyir  him  no  his  lauis ; 
touart  hel  fast  him  draut 
ayeins  har  ending  daus." 

The  "Castle  of  Perseverance"  which  is  thought  to  date  from 
1425  is  largely  didactic.  Here  and  there  is  a  hint  of  satire  on 
executors ;  on  the  pope,  on  abbeys ;  on  fashions ;  on  the  power  of 
money;  and  on  the  fickleness  of  fortune.  Adultery,  sloth,  deceit, 
extortion,  false  assize,  and  simony  are  also  mentioned.  The 
abstraction  Avaricia  speaks  in  character.  He  is  a  satire  on  the 
universal  desire  of  men  to  make  money.  Superbia  is  a  satire  on 
the  desire  to  look  well.  We  find  on  executors  the  following 
criticism : 

"he  sendyth  aftyr  his  sekkatours,  ful  fekyl  to  fynd 
&his  eyr  aftyrward  comyth  evere  behynde, 
I  wot  not  who  is  his  name,  for  he  hym  not  knowe 

"Man  knowe  not  who  schal  be  his  eyr  and  governe  his  good 
he  caryth  mor  for  his  catel  thanne  for  his  cursyd  synne : 
to  put  his  good  in  governaunce  he  mengyth  his  mod 
he  wolde  that  it  were  scyftyd  amongis  his  ny  kynne 
but  ther  schal  com  a  lythyr  ladde  with  a  torne  hod 
I  wot  nevere  who  schal  be  his  name,  his  clothis  be  ful  thynne 
schal  eryth  the  erytage  that  nevere  was  of  hys  blod 
whanne  al  his  lyfe  is  lytyd  upon  a  lytyl  pynne  at  the  laste."^ 

Avarice's  advice  to  Mankind  reminds  us  of  that  of  Lucifer 
to  the  audience  in  the  "Ludus  Coventriae" : 

"thou  must  gyfe  thee  to  symonye 
extorsion  and  false  asyse 
helpe  no  man  but  thou  have  why ; 
pay   not   thi    servauntys   here    serwyse. 
thi  neyborys,  loke  thou  dystroye 
tythe  not  on  no  wyse ! 
here  no  begger,  thou  he  crye, 
&thanne  schalt  thou  ful  sone  ryse 
&whanne  thou  usyste  marchaundyse 
loke  that  thou  be  sotel  of  sleytys, 
and  also  swere  al  be  deseytys, 


39 

bye  and  sell  be  fals  weytys 
for  that  is  kynde  coveytyse. 


"be  the  peny  in  thi  purs 
lete  them  cursyn  &don  here  beste' 


to   pore  men   take  none   entent."^ 

Accidia  says : 

"Men  of  relygyon  I   rewle  in  my  ryth.'" 

Superbia  advises : 

"Use  these  new  Lettes 
loke  thou  blowe  mekyl  bost 
with  longe  Cracows  on  thi  schon 
Jagge  thi   clothis   in   every   cost."' 

Mankind  is  also  advised  to  show  anger  :^° 
"be  also  wroth  as  thou  were  wode 


be  redy  to  spylle  mans  blod  .      .  ! 

"speke  thi  neybour  mekyl  schame 
pot  on  hem  sum  fals  fame." 

Mankind  invites  Envy  to  sit  with  him  saying: 

"Cum  syt  here  softe !    • 
For  in  abbeys  thou  dwellyst  ful  ofte."" 

Some  satire  in  the  form  of  advice  to  mankind  on  fasting 
follows : 

"Fast  no  day,  I  rede  be  the  rode 
Thou  chyde  these  fastyng  cherlys."  ^' 

Mankind  comments  on  adultery ; 

Spousebreche  is  a  frend  ryth  f re ; 
Men  use  that  mo  thanne  inowe;" 

And  when  Accidia  says: 

Whanne  the  messe-belle  goth 
lye  stylle,  man,  &take  non  hede 
Chyrche  goynge  thou  forsake.'"* 


he  replies ; 


40 


"Men  lofe  wel  now  to  lye  stylle 
In  bedde  to  take  a  charowe  swot 
To  chyrcheward   is  not  here  wylle." 


Accidia   like   the   demon   in   the   Towneley   "Juditium"    re- 
joices in  the  number  of  people  who  are  under  his  sway  :^' 

"XXXti  thousende  that  I  wel  knowe, 
In  my  lyf  lovely  I  lede, 
that  had  levere  syttyn  at  the  ale, 
iij   mens  songs  to  syngj'n  lowde 
thanne  toward  the  chyrche  for  to  crowde." 

Avarice  dwells  on  the  power  of  money:" 

"thi  purs  schal  be  thi  best  frende 
thow  thou  syt  al  day  and  prey 
no  man  schal  com  to  thee  nor  sende ; 
but  if  thou  have  a  peny  to  pey, 
men  schul  to  the  thanne  lystyn  &lende." 


he  also  says 


"it  is  good  whon  so  the  wynde  blowe 
A  man  to  have  sum-what  of  his  owe." 


on  the  other  hand,  Abstinencia  presents  the  fickleness  of  fortune  :* 

"Worldis  wele  is  lyke  a  iij-foted  stole 
it  faylyt  a  man  at  hys  most  nede." 


Be  he  never  so  ryche  of  worldis  wone,*° 
hys  seketowris  schul  makyn  here  mone 
'Make  us  mery  &  lete  hym  gone ! 
he  was  a  good  felawe' 
"the  ton  sekatour  seyth  to  the  tothyr, 
'make  we  mery  &  a  ryche  fest 
&  lete  hym  lyn  in  dedis  fodyr.' " 

Mankind,    however,  realizes    the    value    of   money,    for   he 
says:  " 

"Penyman  is  mekyl   in  mynde 


"Penyman  best  may  spede 
he  is  a  duke  to  don  a  dede 
now  in  every  place." 


41 


He  continues  his  proverbial  speeches  :■ 

"  'More  &  more'  in  many  a  place 
certys  that  song  is  oftyn  songe. 


"Inow,  Inow  was  nevere  songe." 

Avarice  lends  Mankind  money  but  gives  him  advice  against 
lending  it  :^^ 

"Lene  no  man  hereof   for  no  karke, 
thou  he  schuld  he  hange  be  the  throte, 
monke  nor  Frere,  prest  nor  clerke 
ne  helpe  therwith  chyrche  nor  cote 
tyl  deth  thi  body  delue. 
thou  he  schuld  sterve  in  a  caue 
lete  no  pore  man  ther  of  haue." 

"Wisdom"  or  "Mind  Will  and  Understanding'"  is  for  the 
greater  part  didactic.  Written  about  1460  and  as  Dr.  Walter 
Kay  Smart-*  has  said  for  the  purpose  of  counteracting  the  grow- 
ing spirit  of  apostasy  among  the  monks,  it  does  show  considerable 
satire  on  the  political  and  social  corruptions  of  that  time.  The 
satire  occurs  in  the  stages  of  the  plot  known  as  Temptation  and 
Life-in-Sin. 

Lucifer  dressed  in  his  favorite  costume — that  of  the  gallant — 
advises  the  characters,  ]\'Iind.  Will  and  Understanding,  who  must 
have  been  costumed  as  monks,  to  leave  their  life  of  contempla- 
tion .--^ 

"Leave  your   stodyes,   thow    (they)    ben   dywyn ; 
Yowur  prayers,  yowur  penance,  of  Ipocryttis  the  syne 
And  lede  a  comun  lyff  ! 
What  synne  in  met,  in   hale,   in  wyn ! 


"Ser  by  Sent  Powle  !"'"' 
But  trust  not  thes  prechors,  for  they  be  not  goode. 
For  they  flatter  &  lye  as  they  were  woode 
Ther  ys   a   wolffe  in   a   lambys   skyn." 

Satire  on  the  times  appears  in  Wyll's  speech  on  lechery  to 
which  he  proposes  to  abandon  himself.  He  refers  to  it — "As  was 
sumtyme  the  gyse  of  Frawnce".  His  speeches  and  those  of  Mind 
and  Understanding  show  the  prevailing  evils  of  the  day — avarice, 
maintenance,  and  immorality.     Understanding  says  r^ 


42 

"The  ryche  covetyse,  wo,  dare  blame, 
Off  govell  and  symony  thow  he  here  the  name 
To  be  fals,  men  report  it  game." 

Wyll  adds  in  a  similar  tone  :-* 

"And  of  lechery  to  make  avawiite 
Men    fors   yt   no    more    than    drynke    atavvnt 
Thes  thyngis  be  now  so  conversant 
We  seme  yt  no  schame." 

From  Mynde,  we  have ;-" 

"Thys  ys  a  cause  of  my  worschyppe 
I  serve  mj^ghty  lordeschyppe 
Therfor  moche  folke  me  dredis 
Men   sew  ti  my   frendeschyppe 
I  supporte  hem  by  lordeschyppe ; 
For  to  gette  goode.  this  a  grett  spede  ys." 

We  learn  Understanding's  methods  from  this  i^" 

"And  I  use  Jirowry 
Embrace  questis  of  perjury 
Choppe  and  chonge  with  symonye 
&take  large  jeftis 
By  the  cause  never  so  try 
I  preve  yt  fals,  I  swere,  I  lye." 

In  the  following  speeches,  Wyll  comments  on  immorality: 

"Few  placis  now  ther  be, 
But  onclennes  we  xall  ther  see" 


Lust  ys  now  comun  as  the  wa}'." 

Mynd  discusses  law  :^- 

"Law  procedyth  not   for  meyntnance" 
"Wo  will  have  law  must  have  monye." 

And  on  lordship  he  says  :^^ 

"Wo  lordschyppc  xall  sew,  must  it  bye." 

Wyll  supports  this  statement  :^* 

"Ther  poverty  ys  the  male-wrye 
Thow   ryght   be,   he   xall   nevermrenewe." 


43 

Mynde  reminds  us  of  Lady  Meed  in  "Piers  Plowman",  and 
of  the  advice  of  the  high-priest  in  "Ludus  Coventriae"  :^^ 

"Wrong  ys  born  upe  boldly 
Thow  all  the  worlde  know  yt  opynly 
Mayntnance  ys  now  so  myghty 
And  all  ys  for  mede." 

Understanding  brings  up  the  conventional  complaint  against 
law:^" 

"The  law  ys  so  coloryde  falsly 
By  sleytes  and  by  perjury 
Brybys  be  so  gredy 

that   to   the   pore,    trowth   ys   take    ryght   nought 
a  hede." 


Wyll  says :' 


"Mayntnaunce  &perjury  now  stande 
Ther  wer  never  so  moche  reynande 
Sith  Gode  was  bore." 

Mynde  adds :'' 

"And  lechery  was  never  more  usande 
Off  lernyde  and  lewyde  in  this  lande." 

Perjury  and  Wyll  characterize  the  Holborn  jury  which  was 
noted  for  its  corruption  -.^^ 

"Thys   menys   consyens   ys    so    streytt 
That  they  report  as  mede  yewt   (beyght) 
Here  is  the  quest  of  Holborn  an  euyll  endyrecte 
They  daunce  all  the  londe  hydyr  &thedyr." 


"Have  they  a  brybe,  have  they  no  care 
Wo  hath  wronge  or  ryght."*" 

The  three  Mights  lay  plans  for  their  future  action.     Under- 
standing proposes  to  go  to  Westminster  :*^ 

"At  Westmynster  without  varyance 
the  nex  terme  xall  me  avawnce 
For   retoryns,   for   enbraces,   for  recordaunce." 


44 

Mynd  will  be  at  St.  Pauls  :*- 

"And  at  the  parvyse  1  wyll  be 
At    Powlys   betwyn   ij    and   iij 
With  a  menye  folowynge  me." 

He  with  Understanding  will  fight  and  arrest  the  husband  of 
Cousin  Janet  with  whom  Will  has  an  intrigue  :*•"* 

"Arest  hym   fyrst  to  pes  for  fyght 
Than   in  another   schere  hym   endyght 
He  ne  xall  wete  by  wom  ne  howe 
Have  hym  in  the  Marschalse  anyght 
Than  to  the  Amralte  for  they  wyll  byght 
A  'prevenire  facias'  than  have  as  tyght 
And  thou  xalt  hurle  hym  so  that  he  xall  have  inow." 

In  "Mankind"  we  come  to  a  morality  written  about  1475, 
which  contains  more  realism  and  rough  humor  than  the  preced- 
ing plays.  The  element  of  burlesque  for  comic  effect  enters  in  the 
I  take-oiT  on  Mankind's  prayer  and  in  the  court-scene  where  Man- 
kind is  initiated  by  New  Guise,  Nowadays  and  Nought.  There 
are  frequent  references  to  localities  and  numerous  sarcastic  re- 
marks from  the  vices,  for  instance.  New  Guise  speaking  to  Mercy 
says  :** 

"Ey,  ey  !  yowur  body  ys  full  of  Englysch  Latin" 


"Now  opyn  yowur  sachell  with  Laten  wordis 
And  sey  me  this  in  clerycall  manere." 

There  is  possibly  a  sly  touch  of  satire  in  the  long  speeches 
sprinkled  throughout  Mercy's  speeches.  The  author  at  any  rate 
seems  to  have  loaded  the  dice  against  his  good  character  and  to 
have  joined  with  the  vices  in  making  sport  of  him.  Mercy  warns 
Mankind  against  the  three  vices  :*^ 

"thei  harde  not  a   masse  this  twelmonyth 
1  dare  well  sei." 

Nought  warrants  this  accusation  when  he  introduces  him- 
self as  having  been  with  the  "comyn  tapster  of  Bury."  He 
boasts  of  his  ability  to  "pype  in  a  Walsyngham  Wystyll." 

New  Gyse  maps  out  his  itineracy  evidently  referring  to  well- 
known  characters  and  places  :*^ 


45 

,  '       "       "FyTst  1  xal3  begyn  at  Master  Huntyngton  of  Sanston 
F"ro   the«s    1    xall   go   to   W  ylliam   Thurlcy   of   Hanston 
And  so  forth  to  Rycharde  of  Trumpyngton. 

Nowadays  has  a  similar  purpose  in  mind,  New  Gyse  knows 
the  danger  of  their  undertaking:*^ 

"If  we  may  be  take,  we  com  no  more  hethyr 
lett  us  con  well  our  neke  verse 
That  we  have  not  a  cheke." 

Nowadays  is  not  thoughtful  of  future  dangers.  He  con- 
tinues planning. 

"A  chyrche  her  besyde  xall  pay  for  ale,  brede,  &wyn"  *^ 

Later  New  Gyse  comes  running  in  with  a  halter  about  his 
■neck.  He  explains  his  situation  to  Mankind  by  saying  that  he  is 
wearing  "Sent  Awdrys  holy  bende",  for 

"I   have  a  lytyll   dyshes  as  3t  plese  god   to  sende 
Wyth   a   running   rynge-worme."*" 

In  the  burlesque  court-scene.  Mankind  is  received  into  the 
compaiiy  of  the  vices  by  answering  "I  wyll,  ser"  to  the  questions 
put  to  him:  (i)  if  he  will  commit  adultery,  (2)  if  he  will  rob, 
steal,  and  kill  (3)  if  he  will  visit  taverns,  forbear  mass,  matins, 
hours,  and  prime.  He  is  then  instructed  to  carry  a  long  "da 
pacem."^" 

The  satire  in  these  Pre-Tudor  Moralities  varies  from  the 
dull  generalized  lament  in  the  "Pride  of  Life"  to  a  more  specific 
attack  on  follies  in  the  ''Castle  of  Perseverance",  "Wisdom",  and 
^'Mankind".  There  is  comment  upon  the  irony  of  life, — the  use- 
lessness  of  hoarding  up  wealth  for  an  unknown  heir,  possibly  the 
fickle  executor.  There  is  ironical  advice  to  yield  to  the  Seven 
Deadly  Sins — to  practice  extortion  and  simony,  to  slander  one's 
neighbors,  to  ignore  the  poor,  and  to  assume  a  swaggering  air. 
The  prevalence  of  slothfulness  and  immorality  is  also  noted. 
Maintenance,  perjury,  and  the  spirit  of  apostasy  among  monks 
bear  the  brunt  of  the  attack.  Besides  this  last  there  is  little  satire 
on  religion.  Mankind  hints  that  Envy's  home  is  in  abbeys ;  and 
Lucifer  advises  the  three  Mights  against  the  flatteries  of  "preach- 
ers". 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SATIRE    IN   THE    EARLY   TUDOR   MORALITIES. 

The  division  of  Early  Tudor  Moralities  includes  the  fol- 
lowing plays;  "Four  Elements".  "Mundus  et  Infans",  "Every- 
man", "Hickscorner",  "Magnificence",  "Nature",  "VVyt  and 
Science",  "Kynge  Johan",  "Lusty  Juventus",  "Respublica", 
"Youth",  and  John  Bale's  "Thre  Lawes". 

In  treating  these  plays  I  shall  consider  "Mundus  et  Infans" 
first,  as  it  was  probably  written  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century  although  it  was  not  printed  until  1522. 

The  play  does  not  contain  much  satire.  Manhood  calls  con- 
science "false  flattering  frere"  and  Folly  gives  this  account  of 
himself  :^ 

"Over  London  bridge  I  ran 
And  straightway  to  the  stews  I  came 
And   took  lodging  for  a  night 
And  there  I  found  my  Iirother  Lechery 

Straight  to  all  the   freres 

And  with  them  I  dwelled  many  years 

And  they  crowned  Folly  a  king — 

Into  abbeys  and  nunneries  also 

By  my  faith  sir  into  London  1  ran 

To  the  tavern  to  drink  the  wine. 

And  then   to  the   inns   I   took  the   wav 

.And  there  I  was  not  welcome  to  the  ostler 

But  I  was  welcome  to  the  fair  tapster 

And  to  all  the  household  I  was  ryght   Dc-'.r" 

He  also  says  that  he  has  lived  long  in  London,  was  born  in 
Holborn  and  is  well  known  at  Westminster.- 

"To  Westminster  I  used  to  wend 
For  I  am  a  servant  of  the  law 
Covetise  is  mine  own  fellow 
We  twain  plete  for  the  king 
And  poor  men  that  come  from  Upland 
We  will  take  their  matter  in  hand 
be  it  right  or  wrong 
Their  thrift   with  us  shall   wend." 
46 


47 

London  seems  to  be  considered  the  home  of  folly ;  Manhood 
says  :^ 

"Folly   will   me   lead   to  London   to  learn   revel 
To  London  to  seek  Folly  will  I  fare." 

There  are  also  references  to  Newgate  and  Eastcheap.* 
In  "Four  Elements"  written  between  15 15  and  1520  we  have 
the  first  morality  to  change  the  subject  of  instruction  from  re- 
ligion to  science.  The  author  in  the  prologue  given  to  the  mes- 
senger, writes  our  earliest  bit  of  dramtic  literary  satire.  He 
satirizes  both  the  subject-matter  of  the  books  of  his  day  and  the 
neglect  of  the  English  tongue  :^ 

"What   number   of  books   in   our   tongue   maternal 
Of  toys  and  trifles   be  made  and  imprinted 
And  few  of  them  of  matter  substantial ; 
For  though  many  make  books,  yet  unneth  ye  shall 
In  our   English  tongue   find  any  works 
Of  cunning,  that  is  regarded  by  clerks. 


If   clerks   in    their    realm   would   take   pain   so, 
Considering  that  our  tongue   is  now   sufficient 
To   expound   any   hard   sentence  evident. 
They  might,  if  they  would,  in  our  English  tongue 
Write  works  of  gravity  among. 


"But   now    so   it   is,   that   in   our    English   tongue 
Many  one  there  is,  that  can  but  read  and  write 
For  his  pleasure  will  oft  presume  among 
New  books  to  compile  and  ballads  to  indite. 
Some  of  love  or  other  matter  not  worth  a  mite 
Some  to  obtain   favor  will   flatter   and  glose 
Some   write   curious   terms   nothing   to   purpose." 

The  messenger's  speech  also  includes  a  satire  on  the  high  es- 
timation of  riches  :*"" 

"But  he  that   for  a  commonwealth  busily 
Studieth   and  laboureth,  and   liveth  by  God's   law 
Except  he  wax  rich,  men  count  him  but  a  daw. 
So  he  that  is  rich  is  ever  honoured 
Although  he  have  got  it  never  so  falsely." 

Sensual  Appetite,  who  leads  Humanity  off  to  the  tavern,  re- 
fers to  the  king's  servant  as  being  the  cause  of  the  scanty  fare  :^ 


4« 

1  iS    for    capons 

Ye  can   get   none 

The   king's   taker   took   up    each    one." 

He  finds  the  taverner  ready  to  crack  a  joke  on  woman.  The 
latter  says  when  asked  for  quail  because  it  is  light  of  digestion 
from  "their  continual  moving",  that  he  knows  a  still  lighter 
meat — woman's  tongue — "for  that  is  ever  stirring." 

Passing  to  the  moral  play  "Everyman"  (1525)  we  find  little 
satire.  God  complains  of  the  devotion  to  riches  and  to  selfish 
interests  :^ 

"In    worldly    riclies    is    all    their    mind." 


"For  now  one  would  by  envy  another  up  eat; 
"Charity   they   do   all   clean    forget." 

Knowledge  gives  a  bit  of  religious  satire :" 

"Sinful   priests  giveth   the   sinners   example   bad 
Their  children  sitteth  by  other  men's  tires  I  have  heard, 
And    some    haunteth    women's    company 
With    unclean    life,   as    lusts   of    lechery." 

In  "Hickscorner"  we  find  a  different  kind  of  morality.  It 
has  none  of  the  dignity  of  "Everyman".  It  'deals  with  low  types. 
Pity  appears  with  a  generalized  lament  on  the  times  and  is 
scoffed  at  by  the  libertine  Hickscorner,  and  by  his  accomplices, 
Imagination  and  Freewill.     First  the  lament  :^" 

"I    have   heard   many   men   complain   piteously 
They  say  they  be  smitten  with  the  swerd  of  poverty. 

Few   friends   poverty  doth   find 

And  these  rich   men  been  unkind 

For  their   neighbours   they  will   nought   do 

Widows  doth  curse  lords  and  gentlemen 

For  they  constrain  them  to  marry  with  their  men 

Yea  whether  they  will  or  no. 

Men  marry   for  good,  and  that  is  damnable 

Yea  with  old  women  that  is  fifty  and  beyond." 

Here  the  author  agrees  with  "Piers  Plowman"  on  the  sub- 
ject of  marriage.     He  continues  :^^ 

"Priests  lack   utterance  to  show   their  cuning 
People    have    now    small    devotion 


49 

And  all  the  while  that  clerks  do  use  so  great  sin 
Among  the  lay  people  look  never  for  no  mending." 

Imagination,  one  of  the  vices,  characterizes  himself  as  fol- 
lows :^^ 

'"I   can   imagine   things   subtle 
For  to  get  money  plenty 
In  Westminster  Hall  every  term  I  am 
To  me  is  kin  many  a  great  gentleman 
I  am  knowen  in  every  country 
And  I  were  dead,  the  lawyers  thrift  were  lost 
For  this  will  I  do,  if  men  would  do  cost 
Prove   right  wrong,  and  all  by  reason 
And   make  men  lose   house  and   land." 


Peach  men  of  treason  privily  I  can " 

And   when   we   list,   to   hang   a   true   man 

If  they  will  be  money  tell 

Thieves   I   can   help   out  of   prison 

And  into  lords  favours  I  can  get  me  soon 

And  be  of  their  privy  council 

I  can  look   in  a  man's   face  and  pick  his  purse 

And  tell  new  tidings  that  never  was  true  iwis 

For  my  hood   is  all  lined  with  lesing." 

Freewill  interrupts  with,  "Yea,  but  went  ye  never  to  Tyburn 
a  pilgrinriage  ?" 

Imagination  answers  ■}* 

"No,   iwis,  nor  none   of   my  linege 
For  we  be  clerks  all  and  can  our  neck  verse 
And  with  an  ointment  the. judges  han  I  can  grease 
That  will  heal  sores  that  be  incurable." 

Hickscorner  represented  as  a  boisterous  sailor,  reports  as 
sunk  in  the  sea  all  true  religious  women,  true  maidens,  true 
monks,  alms-deed  doers,  true  buyers  and  sellers,  true  married 
people,  and  good  rich  men  that  helpeth  folk  out  of  prison.  In  his 
own  boat  came  Falsehood,  Favell,  Jollity,  thieves,  whores, 
liars,  backbiters,  flatterers,  brawlers,  walkers  by  night,  murderers, 
oppressors,  swearers,  false  law,  wanton  wenches  and  hatred. 

Freewill  shows  some  of  New-gyse's  humor  when  he  speaks  of 
the  gyves  as  "a  medicine   for  a  pair  of   sore   shins".     An  op- 
portunity comes  later  for  him  to  have  the  medicine  administered. 
He  speaks  of  the  experience  :^^ 
4 


50 

"For  woe  then  I  wist  not  what  to  have  done 
And   all   because   I    lacked   money 
But  a  friend  in  court  is  worth  a  penny  in  purse." 

Pity  again  breaks  forth  into  a  tirade  against  the  sins  of  the 
people — their  use  of  oaths,  their  fondness  of  extreme  fashions, 
the  inefficiency  of  mayors,  the  injustice  of-  lawyers,  and  the 
general  immorality  of  the  young  :^" 

"Worse    was    it    never 
We  have  plenty  of  great  oaths 
And  cloth  enough   in   our  clothes 
But   charitv   men   loathes. 


Alas  now  is  lechery  called  love  indeed 
And  murder  named  manhood  in  every  need 


Extortion   is   called   law — 

Bawds   be   the   destroyers   of   many   young   women 

'Mayors   on   sin   doeth   no  correction 

While  gentle   men  beareth  truth   adown 

Avoutry   is   suffered  in   every  town." 


Devotion   is  gone  many   days   sin 
Courtiers  go  gay  and  take  little  wages 
"And    many    with    harlots    at    the    taverns    haunts. 
They  be  yeomen  of  the  wreath  that  should  be  shackled 
in  gyves." 


God   punisheth   full  sore   with   great   sickness 
As  pox,  pestilence,  purple,   and   axes 
Yet  was  there  never  so  great   poverty 
Ther  be  som  sermons  made  by  noble  doctors 
But  truly  the  fiend  doth  stop  men's  ears." 

Here  we  see  an  instance  of  English  discrimination.  Some- 
doctors'  are  noble  and  worthy.  What  he  adds  is  an  excuse  for 
those  who  do  not  preach  : 

"All  truth  is  best  not  said 
.And  our  preachers  nowadays  be  half-afraid." 

Freewill  refers  to  localities  of  doubtful  repute:^' 

"If   I   might  make  three  good  voyages  to  Shooter's  Hill 
And  have  wind  and  weather  at  mv  will 


51 

Then  would   I   never  travel  the   sea   more ! 

But  it  is  hard  to  keep  the  ship  from  the  shore 

And  if  it  hap  to  rise  a  storm 

Then  thrown  in  a  raft  and  so  about  borne 

On  rocks  or  brachs  to  run 

Else  to  shake  aground  at  Tyburn 

That   were   a   murderous  case. 

For  that  rock  of  Tyburn  is  so  perilous  a  place 

Young  gallants   dare   not   venture   into   Kent 

But  when  their  money  is  gone  and  spent 

With  their  long  boots  they  row  in  the  bay 

And  any  man-of-war  lie  by  the  way 

They  must  take  a  boat  and  throw  the  helm  ale 

And  full  hard  it  is  to  escape  that  great  jeopardy 

For  at  Saint  Thomas  of  Watering  and  they  strike  a  sail 

Then  they  must  ride  in  the  haven  of  hemp  without  fail. 

And  were  not  these  two  per  parlous  places   indeed. 

There  is  many  a  merchant  thither  would  speed. 

But  yet  we  have  a  sure  channel  at  Westminster 

A  thousand  ships  of  thieves  therein  may  ride  sure ; 

For   if   they   may   anchor-hold   and   great   spending 

They   may  live  merry   as  any  king." 

We  come  next  to  "Magnificence"  a  play  written  by  John 
Skelton,  it  is  thought,  in  15 16.  Magnificence  the  prince  stands 
for  Henry  VIII ;  the  vices  represent  the  evil  qualities  of  his  great 
minister,  Wolsey.  The  forces  for  good  probably  represent  the 
party  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  who  was  opposed  to  the  ex- 
travagent  policy  of  the  upstart,  Wolsey.  The  satire  in  the  play 
has  been  thoroughly  discussed  by  Dr.  Robert  Lee  Ramsay  in  the 
introduction  to  the  Early  English  Text  Society's  edition  of  the 
play;  hence  I  shall  confine  myself  in  giving  instances  which  may 
be  construed  as  satire.  Some  of  these  are  the  familiar  attack 
on  the  times  as  :^- 

"But  men  nowe  a  dayes  so  unhappely  be  uryd 
That  nothynge  than  welth  may  be  worse  enduryd" 

"Yet  lyberte  hath  ben  lockyd  up  and  kept  in  the  mew" 
"Yet  measure  hath  ben  so  longe  from  us  absent 
That  all  men  laugh  at  lyberte  to  scorne ; 
Welth   and  wyt,   I   say,  be   so  threde-bare   worne 
Tha  all  is  without  measure,  and  fer  beyond  the  mone." 

Fancy  refers  to  Louis  XII  of  France  as  having  been  a  gen- 
erous prince : 


52 


"Largesse  is  he  that  all  prynces  doth  avaunce 

"I   reporte  me  herein   to  King   Lewes  of   Fraunce, 


S\th  he  dyed  largesse  was  lytill  used."  '" 

He  shows  the  hostility  existing  between  England  and  France 
in  his  account  of  his  experiences  with  the  coast  officers:^" 

"By  God  at  the  see  syde 
Had  I  not  opened  my  purse  wyde 
I   trowe,  by  our  lady,  1  had  been  slayne 
Or  elles  I  had  lost  myne  eares  twayne 


there  is  such  a  wache 

That  no  man  can  scape  but  they  hym  cache 
They  bare  me  in  hande  that  I  was  a  spe : 
And  another  bade  put  out  myne  eye 
Another  wolde  myne  eye  were  blerde 
Another   bade  shave  halfe  my   berde 
And  boys  to  the  pylery  gan  me  plucke 
And  wolde  have  made  me  Freer  Tucke 
To  preche  out  of  the  pylery  hole." 

Counterfeit  Countenance  probably  a  satire  on  Wolsey  boasts 
of  his  sway :" 

"A  knave  wyll  counterfet  nowe  a  knyght 

A  lurdayne  lyke  a  lord  to  fight 

A  mynstrell  lyke  a  man  of  myght 

A  tappyster  lyke   a   lady  bryght 


Thus  at  the  laste  I  brynge  hym  ryght 
To  Tyburn  where  they  hang  on  hyght 


Counterfet  maters  in  the  law  of  the  lande, 
Wyth  golde  and  grotes  they  grese  my  hande 
In  stede  of  ryght  that  wronge  may  stande." 

Of  wives,  he  says  :^^ 

"To  counterfet  she  wyll  assay 
All  the  newe  gyse   freshe   and  gaye 
And  be  as  praty  as  she  may 
And  jet  it  joly  as  a  jay." 

He  speaks  too,  of  "counterfet  prechynge  and  byleve  the  con- 
trary", and  adds  some  proverbs: 


53 

"Ryches  rideth  out.  at  home  is  poverty."' 


A  knokylbonyarde  wyll  counterfet  a  clarke 

He  wolde  trotte  gentylly  but  he  is  too  starke 

At   his   cloked   counterfetynge   dogges    dothe   barke'' 

This  may  refer  to  Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  was  looked  upon 
with  jealousy  by  the  lords.     He  continues:^* 

'"To  counterfet  this   freers  have  learned  me 
This  nonnes  now  and  then,  and  it  myght  be 
Wolde  take  in  the  way  of  counterfet  charyte 
The  grace  "of  God  under  benedicite 
To  counterfet  theyr  counsell  they  gave  me  a  fee 
Chanons  can  not  counterfet  but  upon  thre 
Monkys   may   not    for   drede   that   men   sholde   them   se.' 

Another  of  the  vices,  Cloked  Collusion,  is  dressed  as  a 
priest  in  cope  and  vestment.  From  this  we  may  infer  that  he  was 
meant  to  represent  Wolsey.  His  remarks  p.  20,  i.  620.  "Hath 
Magnificence  any  treasure?"  is  significant.  His  characteriza- 
tion of  himself  is  said  to  fit  Wolsey:-"* 

'Two   faces  in  a  hode  covertly  I   here 
Water  in  the  one  hande  and  fvre  in  the  other" 


By  Cloked  Collusion,  I  say.  and  none  other 
Cumberance  and  trouble  in  England  iyvst  I  began 
From  that  lorde  to  that  lorde  I  rode  and  I  ran 
And   flatered   them   with    fables    fayre   before   theyr    face 
"And  tolde  all  the  myschyef  I  coude  be  hynde  theyr  backe." 

Courtly  Abusion  dressed  in  the  latest  fashion — the  "new 
foune  jet  out  of  France" — may  be  a  satire  upon  Wolsey's  fond- 
ness for  dress  and  show.  He  comments  on  the  tendency  to  follow 
fashion  :^* 

"A  carlys  sonne 

Brought  vp  of  nought, 

Wyth   me   wyll   wonne, 

Whylyst  he  hath  ought 

He  wyll  have  wrought 

His  gowne  so  wyde 

That  he  may  hyde 

"His  dame  and  his  syre 
Within  his  slyve 


54 

Spende  all  his  hyre 
That  men  hyiii  gyve; 
Wherfore  I  preue 
A  Tyborne  checke 
Shall    breke    his    necke." 

Folly  boasts  that  he  makes  fools  of  idle  men  and  others.  He 
must  be  speaking  of  Wolsey  when  he  refers  to  a  certain  upstart 
who  has  become  very  powerful.    These  are  his  words :-' 

"And  those  be  they  that  come  up  of  nought 
As   some   be   not   ferre   and  yf   it   were  wejl   sought 
Such  dawys,  what  soever  they  be, 
That  be  set  in  auctorite 
Anone  he  waxyth   so   hy  and   prowde 
He  frownyth   fyersly,  brymly  browde 
The  knawe  wolde  make  it  koy  and  he  cowde ; 
All  that  he  dothe  muste  be  alowde ; 
And,   'This   is   not   well   done,   Syr. ;   take  hede.' " 

He  alludes  to  men  who  have  been  bearing  tales  to  the 
sovereign,  but  their  identity  is  unknown:-* 

''Ther  be  two  lyther,  rude  and  ranke, 
Smykyn  Tytyuell  and  Pers  Pj'kthanke ; 
These  lythers  I  lerne  them  for  to  lere, 
What  he   sayth   and  she   sayth  to  lay  good  ere, 
And  tell  to  his  sufferayne  euery  whyt ; 
And  then  he  is  moche  made  of  for  his  wyt; 
And  be  the  mater  yll  more  or  lesse 
He  wyll  make  it  mykyll  worse  than  it  is :     ■ 

Crafty  Conveyance  satirizes  the  times  :-^ 

"It  is  a  wonder  to  se  the  worlde  aboute 
To  se  what  Foly  is  in  vsed  in  euery  place ; 

By  the  quality  of  Crafty  Conveyance  "many  one  is  brought 
up  of  nought,"  for  instance,  Wolsey.  The  "full  ungracious  sorte'' 
around  Magnificence  may  refer  to  Wolsey's  party. 

As  has  been  suggested  by  Dr.  Ramsey,  the  boastful  speech 
of  Magnificence  when  at  the  height  of  his  power  is  a  satire  on 
Henry  VHI's  youthful  extravagance  and  may  also  contain  a 
trace  of  literary  satire.  Magnificence  says  of  Courtly  Abusion's 
language :'" 


55 


"*     *     *     with  Pleasure  I  am  supprysyd 
Of  your  langage,  it  is  so  well  devj'sed ; 
PuUyshyd  and   fresshe  is  your  ornacy. 


He  is  not   lyuynge  your   maners  can  amend 

Mary,  your  speche  is  as  pleasant  as  though  it  were  pend." 

Cloked  Collusion  comments  on  the  recklessness  of  the  times  :^* 

"For  I  here  but   fewe  men  that  gyue  ony  prayse 
Unto   Measure,  I   say,  nowe  a  days" 


"They   catche  that  catche   may,  kepe  and   hold   fast 
Out  of  all  measure  themselfe  to  enryche ; 
No  force  what  thoughe  his  neyghbour  dye  in  a  dyche, 
With  pollynge  and  pluckynge  out  of  all  measure." 

He  advises  Magnificence  how  to  distribute  his  money  :^^ 

"Better  to  make  iii  ryche  than  for  to  make  many 
Gyve  them  more  than  ynoughe  and  let  them  not  lacke 
And  as  for  all  others  let  them  trusse  and  packe 
Pluck  from  an  hundred  and  gyve  it  to  thre 
Let  neyther  patent  scape  them  nor  fee." 

Lyberte  is  disgusted  with  the  stinginess  of  nobles.    He  says  r^' 

"But  nowe   adayes   as   huksters  they  hucke   and   they  stycke, 
And  pynche  at  the  payment  of   a  poddynge  prycke ; 
A  laudable  Largesse  I  tell  you,  for  a  lorde, 
To  prate  for  the  patchynge  of  a  pot  sharde'. 
Spare  for  the  spence  of  a  noble  that  his  honour  myght  saue. 
And  spende  c.   s   for  the  pleasure  of  a  knaue." 

On   the   other   hand,   he    says   too   much    liberty   results    in 
ruin  :^* 

"And  some  in  the  worlde,  theyr  brayne  is  so  ydyll 
That  they  set  theyr  chyldren  to  rynne   on  the  brydyll. 
In  youth  to  be  wanton,  and  let  them  have  theyr  wyll 
And  they  never  thryue  in  theyr  age,  it  shall  not  gretly  skyll 
Some  fall  to  Foly,  them  selfe  for  to  spyll 
And  some   fall  prechynge  at  the  Toure   Hyll : 


.     nonnes  wyll  leve  theyr  holynes  and  ryn  after  me; 
Freers,  with   Foly   I   make  them  so   fayre 
"They  cast  up  theyr  obeydyence  to  cache  me  agayne  ; 
At  Lyberte  to  wander  and  walke  ouer  all. 
That  lustely  they  lepe   somtyme  theyr  cloyster  wall." 


56 

So  much  for  Magnificence.  The  next  play  to  be  considered, 
"Nature"  was  written  between  i486  and  1500.  It  satirizes  the 
conventional  sins,  pride  and  avarice.  Pride  struts  about  as  a 
gallant  reminding  one  of  the  fops  of  a  later  day,  for  instance, 
Lord  Foppington  in  Van  Brugh's  play,  "The  Relapse".  He 
says  of  his  own  appearance  :^^ 

"1    love   yt   well   to   haue   syde   here 
Halfe  a  wote  byneth  myne  ere 
For  ever  more  I  stande  in   fere 
That  myne  nek   shold   take  cold 
I  knyt  yt  vp  all  the  nyght 
And  the   day  tyme  kemb  yt   down   right 
And  then  yt   cryspeth   and   shyneth   as  bryght 
As  any   pyrled   gold. 

"My   doublet  ys   onlaced   byfore 
A  stomacher  of   satin  and  no  more 
Rayn  it,  snow  yt  never  so  sore 
Me  thynketh  I  am  to  bote 
Than   have   I    suche  a   short  gown 
Wyth  wyde  sieves  that  hang  a  down 
They  wold  make  some  lad  in  thys  town 
A  doublet  and  a  cote. 

Later  he  tells  man  that  he  should  get  some  new  clothes  :^^ 

"For  now  there  is  a  new  guyse 
It  ys  nowe  ii.  days  a  gon 
Syth   that   men   beggan   thys    fassyon 
And  every  knave  had  yt  anon, 

He  confides  in  Worldy  Affection  his  future  plans  concerning 
Man  :^^ 

"Syr  our  mayster  shall  have  a  gown 
That  all  the  galandys  in  thys  town 

Shall  on  the  fassyon  wonder 
It  shall  not  be  sowed  but  wyth  a  lace 
bytwyxt   every   some   a   space 
of   two   handful!   assonder 

"Than   a  doublet  of  the  new  make 
Close  byfore  and  open  on   tlic  bak 

No  sieve  vpon  hys  arnic 
vnder  that  a  shyrte  as  soft  as  sylk 
and  as  wbyte  as  any  mylk 

to  kepe   the   carcas   warm. 


57 

"Than   shall   hys  hosen   be  stryped 
Wyth   corselettys   of    fyne   veluet   slyped 

Down  to  the  hard  kne 
And  fro  the  kne  downward 
His   hosen  shalbe   freshely   gard 

Wyth  colours  ii  or  thre 

"And  whan  he  is  in  suche  aray 
There  goth  a  rutter  men  w\-ll  say 

a  rutter  huf  a  galand 
ye  shall  se  these  foles  on  hym  gase 
and  muse  as  yt  were  on  a  mase 

Xew  brought   into   the   land." 

Envy  says  of  Wrath's  ability  to  corrupt  a  jury:'* 

"Syr  yt  happyned  in  Westmynster  Hall 
Even  before  the  Juges  all 
Hys  handys  were  bound  fast 
And  never  upon  hym  that  God  ever  made 
Dager,  sword  nor  knyfe  he  had 
And  yet  at  the  last 
He  drave  XH  men  into  a  corner 
And  an  houre  after  durst  they  not  appere." 

He  adds  a  touch  of  the  conventional  satire  on  woman  :'* 

"Now   he  that  wold  warre  or  stryfe 
I   pray   god   send   hym   a   shrewd   wyfe." 

Sensuality  ascribes  avarice  to  priests  and  lawyers  :*" 

"He  dwelled  wyth  a  prest  as  I  herd  say 
For  he  loveth  well  men  of  the  chyrche  and  they  hym  also 
And  lawyars  eke  whan  they  may  tend  therto. 
Wyll  follow  hys  cOunsell." 


In  the  controversial  drama,  "Lusty  Juventus".  which  dates 
from  the  period  1 547-1 553,  the  satire  is  chiefly  anti-papal. 
Knowledge  on  the  side  of  the  Reformation  informs  Lusty  Ju- 
ventus that  he  has  not  been  instructed  right  in  God's  laws  by  the 
elders  :*^ 

"Because   they    themselves    were    wrapped    in    ignorance 
Being  deceived  by   false  preachers." 


58 

The  devil  and  Hypocrisy  are  represented  as  supporters  of  the 
Catholic  faith.     The  former  laments  his  loss  of  power  :*- 

"The   old   people   would   still    believe    in   my   laws 
But  the  younger  sort  lead  them  a  contrary  way, 
They  will  not  believe  they  plainly  say 
In  old  traditions  and  made  by  men 
But  they  will  live  as  the  scripture  teacheth  them 

The  latter  tells  how  he  has  deceived  the  people  :*^ 

"Holy  cardinals,  holy  popes,  holy  vestments, 
holy  copes,  holy  hermits,  holy  friars,  holy  priests, 
holy  bishops,  holy  monks,  holy  abbots,  holy  pardons, 
holy  beads,  holy  saints,  holy  images,   etc. 
with  holy,  holy,  holy  blood 
holy   stocks,  holy   stones 
yea  and  holy,  holy  wood 
holy  clouts,  holy  bones, 
holy  skins,  holy  bulls, 
holy   rochets,   and   holy   cowls 
holy  crouches  and  holy  staves 
holy  hoods,  holy  caps 
holy  mitres,  holy  hats 
All  good  holy  holy  knaves, 
holy  days,  holy  fastings 
holy  visions  and  sights 
holy  wax,  holy  lead 
holy  water,  holy  bread 

The  devil  and  Hypocrisy  both  lament  the  spread  of  the  new 
religious  teaching.     The  devil  complains  :** 

"God's  word  is   so  greatly   sprung  up   in  youth 
That  he  little  regardeth  my  laws  or  me 
He  telleth  his  parents  that  is  very  truth 
That  they  of  long  lime  deceived  have  be." 

and  Hypocrisy  adds  in  the  same  strain  :*^ 

"The  world  was  never  merry 
Since  children    were   so   bold 
Now  every  boy  will  be  a  teacher 
The   father  a  fool,  and  the  child  a  preacher," 

Good  counsel  also  has  a  grievance  against  the  times  :*''' 

"O  where  may  a  man  find  now  one  faithful  congregation 
"That  is  not   infected  with   dissension  or  discord 


59 


Who  useth  not  now  covetousness  and  deceit 
Who  geveth  unto  the  poor  that  which  is  due." 


The  time  were  too  long  now  to  recite 

What  whoredom,  uncleannes  and  filthy  communication 

Is  dispersed  with  youth  in  every  congregation 

To  speak  of  pride,  envy,  and  abhominable  oaths 

They  are  the  common  practices  of  youth 

To  avaunce  your  flesh,  you  cut  and  jag  your  clothes" 

In  "Youth"  dating  from  1546  (?)  we  have  a  didactic  mor- 
ality aimed  at  the  particular  sins  of  youth ;  Riot  typifying  one  of 
these  sins  says  when  questioned  about  his  experiences  in  New- 
gate that  he  has  never  really  been  there  very  long.**' 

"For   I  have  learned  a  policy 
That  will  loose  me  lyghtly 
And  soon  let  me  go. 

Once,  he  continues  :*^ 

"The  Mayor  of  London  sent  for  me 
Forth  of  Newgate  for  to  come 
For  to  preach   at   Tyburn." 

The  rope  broke,  however,  and  he  escaped  punishment. 

We  now  pass  to  a  bitter  attack  upon  the  mummery  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  in  John  Bale's  "Kyng  Johan".  Ynglond  com- 
plains against  the  clergy  :^^ 

"Alas,  yowr  clargy  hath  done  very  sore  amys 
In  mysusyng  me  ageynst  all  ryght  and  justyce." 
Suche  lubbers  as  hath  dysgysed  heads  in  their  hoodes 
Whych  in  idelnes  do  lyve  by  other  menus  goodes, — 
Monkes,  chanons  and  nones  in  dyvers  coloure  and  shappe 
Both  whyght,  blacke  and  pyed.     God  send  their  increase  ill  happe 

"I  told  you  before  the  faulte  was  in  the  clergye 


For  they  take   from   me   my   cattel,   howse   and   land 
My    wods    and   pastures    with    other   commodyteys : 

The  Pope  is  referred  to  as  "the  wyld  bore  of  Rome,"  and 
his  followers  are  called  "pigges"  fed  with  vile  "ceremonyes". 
They  are  further  described  :^^ 

"And   unto  the  lawys  of   synfuU   men   they   leane 
Lyke  as  the  vyle  swyne  the  most  vyle  metes  dessyer." 


6o 

Sedition  who  aj)pears  later  in  the  play  as  Stephen  Langton 
says  that  he  was  born  under  the'  Pope  in  Rome.     He  adds  :°^ 

"In  every  relygyon  and  munkysh  secte  I  rayne, 
Havyng  you  princes  in  scorne,  hate  and  disdayne. 


Sumtynie  I  can  be  a  monke  in  a  long  syd  cowle 
Sumtyme  I  can  be  a  none  and  loke  like  an  owle ; 
Sumtyme  a  chanon  in  a  syrples  f  ayer  and  whyght ; 
A  chapter  howse  monke  sumtyme   I   apere  in   ryght 
I  am  ower  Syr  John  sumtyme,  with  a  new  shaven  crowne 
Sumtyme  the  person  and  swepe  the  stretes  with  a  syd  gowne 
Sumtyme  the  bysshop  with  a  myter  and  a  cope ; 
Agraye  fryer  sumtyme  with  cutt  shoes  and  a  rope ; 
Sumtyme  I  can  playe  the  whyght  monke,  sumtyme  the  fryer. 
The  purgatory  prist,  and  every  man's  wyffe  desyer 

sumtyme  lam  a  cardynall." " 

sumtyme  a  pope."  ^ 

There  is  a  satirical  reference  to  the  supervision  of  abbeys:" 

"In  abbeyes  they  have  so  many  suttyl  spyes 
For  ones  in  the  yere  they  have  secret  vysytacyons 
And  yf  ony  prynce  reforme  ther  ungodly  facyons, 
Than  ii  of  the  monkes  must  forthe  to  Rome  by-and-by 
With   secret  letters  to  avenge  ther  injury." 
and  one  on  lawyers  when  Sedition  claims  them  as  his  friends. 

King  John,  we  expect  to  be  violent  in  his  denunciation  of  the 
clergy.    He  says  •.^■' 

"Yt  was  never  well  syns  the  clargy  vvrought  by  practyce 
And  left  the  Scripture  for  mens  ymagynacyons 
Dyvydyng   themselvys   in   so   many   congrj'gacyons 
Of  monkes,  chanons  and  fryers,  of  dyvers  colors  and  facyons 


With  your  Latyne  howrs,  sermonyes,  and  popetly  playes." 
Rekyn  fyrst  your  tythis,  yowr  devocyons  and  yowr  offerynges 
Mortuaryes,   pardons,   bequests   and   other   thynges 
Besydes  that  ye  cache  for  halowed  belles  and  purgatorye 
For  juelles,  for  relyckes,  confessyon  and  cowrts  of  baudrye 
For  legacyes,  trentalls,  with  scalacely  messys 
You  prists  are  the  cawse  that  chronycles  doth  defame 
So  many  prynces  and  men  of  notable   fame."™ 

Dissimulation   is   strongly   opposed   to  the  methods  of  ap- 
pointing church  officials  :®^ 


6i 

"Though   we   playe  the  knavjs.   We  must   shewe  good  pretence." 


"To  win  the  peple  I  appoynt  eyche  man  his  place ; 
Sum  to  synge  Latyn,  and  sum  to  ducke  at  grace 
Sum  to  go  mummyng,  and  sum  to  beare  the  crosse 
Sum  to  stowpe  downeward  as  ther  heades  wore  stopt  with  mosse, 
Sum  to  rede  the  epystle  and  gospell  at  hygh  masse 
Sum  syng  at  the  lectorne  with  long  eares  lyke  an  asse. 
The  pawment  of  the  chyrche  the  aunchent  faders  tredes 
Sumtyme  with  a  portas,  sumtyme  with  a  payre  of  bedes. 

Speaking  of  the  power  of  the  Pope,  he  says  :^* 

He   shall  make  prelates,  both  byshopp  and  cardynall 
Doctours  and  prebendes  with  furdewhodes  and  syde  gownes 
"He  wyll  also  create  the  orders   monastycall 
Monkes,  chanons,  and  fryers  with  graye  coates  and  shaven  crownM 
And  buyld  them  places  to  corrupt  cyties  and  townes : 
The  dead  sayntes  shall  shewe  both  vysyons  and  myracles 
With  ymages  and  rellyckes  he  shall  worke  sterracles 


He  wyll  make  mattens,  houres.  masse  and  evensonge 
To  drown  the  Scriptures  for  doubte  of  heresye 
Latyne  devocyons  with  the  holy  rosarye. 
"The  Popys  power  shall  be  above  the  powers  all, 
And  eare  confessyon  a  matere  necessary^ 


The  gospell  prechyng  wyll   be   an   heresy." 

The  Pope  is  made  to  say  in  person  :*'*' 

"I   will  all-so  reyse  up  the  fower  begging  orders 
That  they  may  preche  lyes  in  all  the  christen  borders." 

Cyvyle  Order  tells  Clargy  -.^^ 

"For   yf   they   decay,   ower   welth   ys   not   alyve" 


I  never  knew  lawer  which  had  ony  crafty  lernyng 
That  ever  escapte  you  withowt  a  plentyous  levyng" 

The  king  remonstrates  against  their  power  :"- 

'    "Our  prists  are  rysyn  throwgh  lyberte  of  kyngs 
by  ryches  to  pryde  and  other  unlawfull  doynges. 


See  ye  not  how  lyghte  the  lawyers  sett  the  poure" 


62 

Commonalty,  too,  accuses  the  clergy  in  his  answer  to  the 
king's  question  where  his  money  has  gone/'^ 

"By  pristes,  channons,  and  nionkes  which  do  but  fyll  ther  bely 
With  my  swett  and  labour  for  thcr  popysh  purgatory." 

Ynglond  warns  King  John  : 

"But,  yf  ye  permytt  contynuaunce  of  ypocresye 
In  monkes,  and  pristes,  and  mynysters  of  the  clergyp 
Your  realme  shall  never  be  without  much  traytery." 

and  to  Pandulph  she  says  f'* 

"I   smarte  all-redy  throw  yowr  most  suttell  practyse 
And  am  clene  ondone  by  yowr  false  merchandyce. 
Yowr  pardons,  yowr  bulles,  yowr  purgatory-pjkepurse 
Yowr  Lent  —  fasten,  yoowr  schryftes,  that  I  pray  God 
geve  yow  his  cursse  ! 

After  John  consents  to  give  up  the  crown,  Sedition  gives 
vent  to  his  joy  :*^^ 

"Now  may  we   realmes  confounde 
Oure   Holye   Father   maye   now   lyve   at   hys   pleasure 
And  have  habundance  of  wenches,  w^ynes  and  treasure. 


Now  shalle  we  ruffle  it  in  velvetts,  gold,  and  sylke 

With  shaven  crownes,  syde  gownes,  and  rochettes  whyte  as  mylke." 

Treason   confesses:*^® 

"I  have  so  convayed  that  neyther  priest  nor  lawer 
wyll  obeye  Gods  wurde  nor  yet  the  gospell  faver." 

and  calls  paganistic  the  various  ceremonies  of  the  church : 

"All  your  ceremonyes,   your  copes  and  sensers   doubtlesse 
Your  fyers,  your  waters,  your  oyles,  your  aulters,  your  ashes 
Your  candlestyckes,  your  cruettes,  your  sake  with  such  lyke  washes 


Of  the  paganes   ye  have   your  gyldcd  ymages   all 

With   crowchynges,  with   kyssynges  and   settynge  up  of   lyghts 
Bearynge  them  in  processyon  and  fastynges  upon  their  nyghtes 
Soom  for  tothe-ake,  some  for  the  pestylence  and  poxe ; 
with  ymages  of  waxe  to  brynge  moneye  to  the  boxe." 


63 

To  Yrjglond's  question,  "What  have  they  of  Christ  in  the 
church?"  Treason  replies:"' 

"Mary,  nothynge   at   all,  l)ut   the   epystle  and  the  gospell 
And  that  is  in  Latyne  that  no  man  shoulde  it  know." 

King  John's  final  opinion  of  the  power  of  the  clergy  and 
their  vindictiveness  is  given  in  the  following  line  :*"'* 

■'Ther  is  no  niaylce  to  the  malyce  of  the  clergye." 

Sedition  remains  hopeful  of  the  Pope's  power  :®^ 

"The  popes  ceremonyes  shall  drowne  the  gospel  styll 
Some  of  the  byshoppes  at  your  injunctyons  slepe. 
Some  laugh  and  go  bye,  and  some  playe  boo-peep 
Some  of  them  do  nought  but  searche  for  heretykes, 
Whyls  their   priestes   abroade   do  playe  the  scysmatykes. 
Tell  me  in  London  how  manye  their  othes  discharge 
Of  the  curates  there :    vet  it  is  much  wurse  at  large. 


Get  they  false  wytnesses  they  force  not  of  whens  they  be. 
Be  they  of  Newgate,  or  be  they  of  Marshallsee. 

the  prelates  do  not  preche. 

But  persecute  those  that  the  holy  Scriptures  teache. 

This  play  is  the  most  outspoken  of  all  the  controversial 
dramas.  In  the  selection  of  details  and  in  the  enormities  with 
which  the  clergy  is  charged,  it  is  surpassed  only  by  the  same 
author's  "Three  Lawes". 

In  this  play  Infidelitas  who  has  as  accomplices.  Sodomismus 
dressed  as  a  monk  and  Idololatria  as  a  necromancer,  begins  by 
characterizing  the  latter.  The  Christmas  and  Easter  Festivals 
according  to  him  smack  of  Idolatry.  Sodomismus  agrees  with 
this  and  adds  to  the  characterization  of  Idololatria  :'° 

"Mennys   fortunes   she  can  tell 
She  can  by  sayenge  Ave  Marye 

"And  by  other  charmes  of   sorcerye, 
Ease  men  of  toth  ake  by  and  by, 
Yea  and   fatche  the  deuyll   from  hell." 

Idololatria  is  made  to  relate  her  numerous  accomplish- 
ments :^^ 

"With  holye  oyle  and  watter 
I  can  so  clovne  and  clatter 


64 

That   I   can  at  the  latter 
Many  suttyltees  contryve 


I  never  mysse  but  paulter" 
Our  blessed  ladyes  psaulter 
Before  saynt   Sauers  aulter 
With  my  bedes  ones  a  daye 
And  thys  is  my  common  cast 
To  heare  masse  first  or  last 
And  the  holy  frydaye  fast 
In  good  tyme  mowt  I  it  save 

"With   blessynges  of  Saynt  Germayne 
I  wyll   me  so  determyne 
That  neyther   foxe  nor  vermyne 
Shall   do  my  chickens  harme 
For  your  gese  seke  saynt  Legearde 
And  for  your  duckes  saynt  Lenarde 
For  horse  take  Mosyes  yearde 
Thre  is  no  better  charme. 

"Take  me   a  napkyn   folte 
Wyth  the  byas  of  a  bolte 
For  the  healynge  of  a  colte 
No  better  thyng  can  be 


"For  the  cough  take  Judas   eare, 
With    the   parynge   of    a   peare 
And  drynke  them   wfithout   feare 
If  ye  wyll   have  remedy 
Three  syppes  are  for  the  hyckock,  etc. 


"If  ye  cannot  slepe  but  slumber 
Geve  otes  unto  saynt  Uncumber 
And  beanes   in  a   serten  number 
Unto  saynt  Blase  and  saynt  Blythe 
Geve  onyons  to  saynt  Cyryake 
If  ve  wvll  shunne  the  head  ake." 


Sodomismus  boasts  -J^ 


"And  now  the  popysh  hypocrytes 
Embrace  me  every  where 
I  am  now  become  all  spyrytuall 
For  the  clergye  at  Rome  and  over  all 
For  want  of  wyves  to  me  doth  fall, 
To  God  thev  have  no  feare." 


65 

"If  monkysh  sectes  renue '* 

And  popysh  prestes  contynue, 

Whych  are  of  my  retynue, 

To  lyve  I  shall  be  sure, 
"Cleane  marryage  they   forbyd, 

Yet  can  not  their  wayes  be  hyd 

Men  knowe  what  hath  betyd, 

Whan  they  have  been  in  parell 

Oft   have  they  buryed  quycke, 

Such  as  were  never  sycke 

Full  many  a  propre  trycke 

They  to  helpe  their  quarrel! 

"In  Rome  to  me  they  fall 
Both  Byshopp  and  Cardynall 
Monke,  fryre,  prest  and  all 
More  ranke  they  are  than  antes 
Example   in   Pope   Julye 
Whych  sought  to  have  in  hys  furye 
Two  laddes,  and  to  use  them  beastlye 
From  the  Cardynall  of  Nantes." 

Infidelitas  sends  Idolatry  and  Sodomy  forth  to  pervert  man- 
kind with  rings,  brooches,  beads,  and  the  hke.  Here  are  the 
instructions  -J^ 

"Take  thu  part  of  them   here 
Beades,  rynges,  and  other  geare 
And  shortlye  the  bestere 
To   deceyve   man   properlye 

"Take  thys   same  staffe   and   scryppe 
With  a  God  here  of  a  chyppe 
And  good  beldame    forewarde   hyppe 
To  set  fourth  pylgrymage 
Set   thu   fourth   sacramentals 
Say  dyrge  and  synge  for  trentals 
Stodye  the  popes  Decretals 
And  mixt  them   with   briggerage 

"Here   is   a   stoole   for  the 

A  ghostlye   father  to  be 

To  heare   Benedicite 
"A  boxe  of  creame  and  oyle 

Here  is  a  purse  of  rellyckes 

Ragges,  rotten  bones  and  styckes 

A  taper  with  other  tryckes." 


66 

Infidelitas,  burlesque  prayer  is  a  terrible  satire  on  the  pope:''" 

"Omiiipotens  scmpiternc  Deus,  qui  ad  iiiiaginem  et  siinilitudinem 
nostram  formasti  laicos,  da  quaesumus  ut  sicut  eorum  sudoribus  vivimus, 
ita  eorum  uxoribus,  filiabs,  et  domicellis  perpeto  frui  mereamur.  Per 
dominum  nostrum  Papam. 

He  follows  the  prayer  with  general  satire  on  the  times  :^^ 

"Now  underneth   her  wynges 
Idolatry  hath  kyiiges, 
With    their   nobylyte 
/  Both   dukes,  lordes,  knyghtes  and   earles 

Fayre  ladyes  with  their  pearles 
And  the  whole  commenalte 

"Within    the    bownes'    of    Sodomye 
Doth   dwell  the  spirytuall  clergye, 
Pope,  cardinal!  and  pryst, 
Nonne,  chanon,  monke  and   fryre, 
W'ith  so  many  els  as  do  desyre 
To  reigne  undre  Antichrist 

"Detestynge   matrymonye 
They  lyve  abhomynablye 
And  burn   in   carnall  lust 
Shall  I  tell  ye  farther  newes? 
At  Rome  for  prelates  are  stewes 
Of  both  kyndes,  Thys  is  just. 

Naturae  Lex  deplores  the  iniquities  of  the  day  ■J^ 

"I   abhorre  to  tell   the  abusyons  bestyall 
That    they    dayly    use,    whych   boast   their   chastyte 
Some    at    the    aulter   to    incontynency    fall, 
In   confessyon    some    full   beastly   occupyed   be 
Amonge  the  close   nonnes   reyneth   thys   enormyte 
Soch  chyldren  slee  they,  as  they  chaunce  for  to  have, 
And   in    their   prevyes,   prouyde   them   of   their  grave. 

"Ye  Christen  rulers,  se  you   for  thys  a  wave, 
Be  not  illuded  by   false  hypocresye. 
By  the  stroke  of  God,  the  worlde  wyll  els  decaye. 
Permyt    prestes    rather,   God's    lawfull    remedye 
Than  they  shuld  incurre,  most  bestyall   Sodomye 
Regarde  not  the  pope,  not  yet  hys  whorysh  kyngedom 
For  he  is  the  master  of  Gomor  and   Sodome." 


67 

Infidelitas  sees  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  fears  the  passing  away  of  unheard  of  iniquities.  After 
dwelHng  upon  the  vices  of  priests,  monks,  and  bishops,  he  dis- 
cusses the  new  rehgious  spirit  :"** 

"Now  are  the  knaves  bolde 
With  Scriptures  to  holde 
And  teache  them  ever}-  where 
The  carter,  the  sowter, 
The  bodger,  the  clowter 
That  all  wyll  awaye  I  fere 

"As  us  so  they  pulle 
Our  lyvynges  are  dulle 
We  are  now  lyke  to   fall 
If  we  do  not  fyght 
For  the  churches  ryght 
By  the  messe  we  shall  lose  all. 

InfideHty  next  tries  to  destroy  Moses'  law.  His  two  ac- 
compHces  are  Avaritia  dressed  as  a  jurisconsultus  and  Ambitio 
as  a  prelate.     He  tells  what  they  stand  for :®° 

■'Somtyme   for   lucre,   somtynie   for   the   hygher   place 
Yet  for  advantage,  in  thys  we  all  agre. 
To  blynde  the  rulers,  and   deceyve  the  commynalte." 

Avaritia  shows  his  character  in  a  long  speech  from  which  I 
take  the  following  excerpt. ^^ 

"To   labour   with   a   spade 
Our  colour  wolde  it  fade 
We  may  not  with  that  trade 
We  love  so  moch  our  ease 
We  must  lyve  by  their  sweate 
And   have  good  drynke   and  meate 
Whan  they  have  not  to  eate 
The   substaunce  of   a  pease 


"Our  lowsye  latyne  howres 
In  borowes  and  in  bowres 
The  poore  people  devowres 
And  treade  them  undre  fete. 

Ambitio  as  his  name  suggests  gapes  for  "empyre  and  wor- 
shypp."    He  says  :®- 


68 

'I    lokc    up    aloft 

And  loue  to  lye  soft 

Not  carynge   for  my   flocke 


Hygh   thynges    I    attempt 
"And    wyll    me    exempt 
From  prynces  iurysdyccyon." 

He  tells  how  he  deceives  the  people  :*^ 

"Wyth    fylthy   gloses   and   dyrty    exposycyons, 
Of  God's  lawe  wyll  I  hyde  the  pure  dysposycyons 
The  keye  of  knowledge,  I  wyll  also  take  awaye 
By  wrastynge  the  text  to  the   scriptures  sore  decaye 


"We  must  poyson  them,  with   wyll  workes  and  good  intentes 
Where  as  God  doth  saye.  no  straunge  goddes  thu  shalt  have 
With  sayntes  worshyppynge,  that  clause  we  wyll  deprave 
And  though  he  commaunde,  to  make  no  carved  ymage 
For  a  good  intent  yet  wyll  we  have  pylgrymage 

"No   Sabboth   wyl   we,   with  Gods   worde   sanctyfye 
But   with   lyppe   labour   and   ydle   ceremonye 
To  father  and  mother,  we  maye  owe  non  obedyence 
Our   relygyon   is   of   so  great   excellence 
Though   we   do   not   slee,   yet   maye   we   heretykes   burne 
If  they   wyll   not   sone   from   holye   scripture   turne 
What   though   it  be   sayd,   thu   shalt   do   no   fornycacyon 
Yet   wyll   we   mayntene,   moch   greatter   abhomynacyon 
Though  theft  be   forbyd,  yet  wyll  we  contynuallye 
Robbe  the  poore  people,  through   prayer  and  purgatorye 
God   hath   inhybyted   to   geve    false   testymonye 
Yet  we   wyll  condempe,   the  Gospell   for  hcresye. 

"We   shuld   not   covet   our   neybers   horse   nor   vvyfe 
Hys  servaunt  nor  beast,  yet  are  we  therein   most  ryfe 
Of  men  make  we  swyne  by  the  draffe  of  our  tradycyons, 

"And   cause   them   nothinge   to   regard   but   superstycyons 

In  his  turn  the  avaricious  Juris  consultus  says:^* 

"Both  howse  and  medowe 
From  tbe  poor  wydowe 
I  spare  not  for  to  take 
Ryght  heyres  I  rob 
And  as  bare  as  Job 
The  fatherles  I  make 
For  sylver  and  golde 


69 


With  falsehed  I  holde 

Supportynge  every  evyl 

I  have  it  in  awe 

for  to  choke  the  lawe 

And  brynge  all  to  the  devyl." 


"With  superstycyons  the  Jewes  ceremonyall  lawes" 
I  wyll  so  handle  they  shall  not  be  worth  two  strawes 
The  laws  Judycyall  through  cawtels  and  delayes 
I  wyll  also  drowne  to  all  ryghteouse  mennys  decayes, 
To  set  thys  forwarde,  we  must  have  sophystrye 
Phylosophye  and  Logick,  as  Scyence  necessarye 
The  byshoppes  must  holde,  their  prestes  in  ignoraunce 
with  longe  latyne  houres,  least  knowledge  to  them  chaunce 
Lete  them  have  longe  mattens,  long  evensonges,  and  lorige  masses 
And  that  wyll  make  them,  as  dull  as  ever  were  asses 
That   they  shall  never  be   able  to  prophecye 
Or  yet  to  preach   the  truth  to  our  great  injurye 

"Lete  the  cloysterers  be  brought  up  ever  in  sylence 
Without  the  scriptures  in  payne  of  dysobedyence 
In  the  laye  people,  praye  never  but  in  latyne 

"Lete  them  have  their  crede  and  servyce  all  in  latyne 
That  a  latyne  beleve  maye  make  a  latyne  sowle 
Lete  them  nothynge  knowe  of  Christ  nor  get  of  powle 

"If  they  have  Englysh,  lete   it  be   for  advauntage 
For  pardons,  for  Dyrges,  for  offerynges  and  pylgrymages 
I  recken  to  make  them  a  new  Crede  in  a  whyle 
And  all  in  Englysh,  their  conscyence  to  begyle. 

The  proposed  creed  is  as  follows  :^^ 

"First  they   shall   beleve   in  our   holy   father,   Pope 
Next   in  hys  decrees,  and  holy  decretals 
Then  in  holy  church,  with  sencer,  crosse  and  cope 
In   the   ceremonyes   and   blessed   sacramentals 
In  purgatory  then,  in  pardons  and  in  trentals 
In  praynge  to  sayntes  and  in   Saynt  Frances  whoode 
In  our  lady  of  Grace  and  in  the  blessed  roode 
They  shall  beleve  also  in  rellyckes  and  relygyon 
In  our  ladyes  psalter,  in  fre  wyll  and  good  wirkes 
In  the  ember  dayes,  and  in  the  popes  remyssyon 
In  bedes  and  in  belles  not  used  of  the  turkes 
In  the  golden  masses  agaynst  soch  spretes  as  lurkes 
With  charmes  and  blessynges,  thys  crede  will  bring  in  moneye 
In   Englysh   therfor,  we  wyll   it  clarkely  conveye 


70 


Ambitio  suggests  :^ 


"Then  I  holde  it  best  that  we  alwayes  condempne 
The  Byble  readers,  least  they  our  actes  contempne." 

Infidelitas    after    comparing    Ambitio's    mitre    to    a    wolf's 
mouth  adds:®* 

"But  thy  wolvyshnesse,  by  thre  crownes  wyll   1   hyde 
Makynge   the   a   pope,   and  a  captayne  of   all  pryde 
That  whan  thou  dost  slee  soche  as  thy  lawes  contempne 
Thou  niayst  say,  not  I,  but  the  powers  ded  them  condempne 


And  thu  covetousnesse,  lete  no  bell  rynge  in  steple 
Without  a  profyght,  tush,  take  moneye  every  whear 
So  nygh  clyppe  and  shave  that  thu  leave  never  a  heare." 

Avaritia  boasts  :*" 

"I   caused  the   pope  to  take  but  now  of  late 
Of  the  Graye   fryres,   to  have  canonyzate 
Franciscus   de    Pola,   thre    duckates   and    more 
And   as   moch   besyde,  he  had  not  longe  afore 
For  a   Cardynall   hatte,  of   the   same  holy  order 
Thus   drawe  to  us,  great  goodes   from   every  border 
Pope  Clement  the  'seventh  payed  ones  for  hys  papacye 
Thre  hondred  thousand,  good  duckates  of  lawful  moneye 

The  methods  by  which  he  got  so  much  money  are  explained 
by  Avarice :"" 

by  pollage,  and  by  shedynge  Christen  blood 


Crosers  and  mytars  in  Rome  are  good  merchandyce 
And  all  to  lyttle  to  maj'nteyne  their  pompe  and  vyce, 

InfideHtas  says  :^^ 

"Now   byshopryckes   are    solde 
and  the  holy  ghost  for  gold 
The  pope  doth  bye  and  sell 


The  people  prestes  do  famysh 
And  their  goodes  from  them  ravysh 
Yea.   and   all   the   worlde    they   blynde 
All  prynces  do  they  mock 
And   robbe  the  syllye  flocke 
Notliynge  they  leave  behynde." 


71 

To  destroy  Christ's  law,  Infidelitas  sends  out  Hypocrisis  and 
Pseudo-Doctrina.  The  former  indulges  in  some  unquotable  re- 
marks, and  the  latter  is  not  far  behind  him.  If  true,  they  show 
great  corruption  among  high  church  officials  and  extreme  bold- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  author  in  making  accusations  by  name 
instead  of  skulking  behind  abstractions.  For  instance,  we  have 
Pseudo — doctrina  accusing  two  cardinals  by  name:®^ 

"In  kynge  ferdynands  tyme  in   Spayne  was  a  Cardynall 
Petrus  menoza,  was  the  very  man  that  I  meane, 
Of  lemans  he  had,  great  nombre  besydes  the  quene. 
One  of  his  bastardes  was  earle,   an  other  was   duke 
Whom  also  he  abused,  and  thought  it  no  rebuke, 

"Joannes   Cremona   an   other  good  Cardynall, 
For   reformacyon  of  the  clergye  spyrituall 
Came   over   into   Englande,    to   dampne   prestes    matrymonye 
And  the  next  nyght  after  was  taken  doynge  bytcherye 

"Doctor   Eckius   also,  whych    fearcely  came  to   dyspute 
In  lipsia  with  Luther,  myndynge  there  hym  to  confute 
For  maryage  of  prestys,  thre  chyldren  had  that  yeare." 

Infidelitas  fears  the  new  sect,  He  tells  Pseudo-doctrina :®' 

"They   save,   thu   teachest,   nothynge   but   lowsy   tradycions 
And  lyes   for  lucre  with  damnable  superstycyons. 
And  thus   they  conclude  that   the   draffe  of  popysh   prystes 
Is  good  ynough   for  swyne,  by  whom  they  meane  the  papystes 


And   all  thys  knowledge  they  have   now  of   the  Gospell, 

Pseudo-doctrina  plans  a  campaign  with  Hypocrisis  against 
Christ's  law.«* 

"Four  knyghtes  wyll  we  hyre,  whom  we  shall  streyghtly  charge 
To  kepe  hym  downe  hardes.     The  first  are  ambycyouse  prelates 
Then   covetouse   lawers,   that   God's   words   spyghtfully   hates 
Lordes  without  lernynge  and  justyces   unryghtfull 
These  wyll  kepe  hym  down  and  rappe  hym  on  the  scull 
Then  someners  and  ther  scribes,  I  warande  ye  shall  stere 
With  balyves  and  catch  polles  to  holde  hym  downe  every  where" 

Hypocrisis  offers  to — ^^ 

" rayse   up   in  the  unyversytees 

The  seven  sleepers  there,  to  advance  the  popes  decrees 
As  Dorbel  and  Duns,  Durande  and  Thomas  of  Aquyne. 


/- 

The  stage  directions  as  to  the  "aparellynge  of  the  six  vyces 
or  frutes  of  Infydelyte"  are  interesting:"" 

"Lete  Idolatry  he  decked  lyke  an  old  wytche,  Sodomy  lyke 
a  monke  of  all  sects,  Amhycyon  lyke  a  byshop.  Covetousness  lyke 
a  pharyse  or  spirituall  lawer,  false  doctryne  lyke  a  popysh  doctour 
and  hypocrisy  lyke  a  graye  fryre,  the  rest  of  the  partes  are  easye 
ynough  to  conjecture." 

John  Bale's  'i^lay  "God's  Promises"  may  contain  satire  in 
the  speech  of  Pater  Coelestis.  but  it  is,  I  think,  merely  a  con- 
ventional complaint :°' 

"O   froward   people,  given   all   to   superstitions: 
Unnatural   children,   expert    in   blasphemies 
Provoketh   me  to  hate  by  their  idolatries 


1   abhor  your   fasts  and  your  solemnity : 

For  your  traditions  my  ways  ye  set  apart 

Your   works  are   in   vain,   I   hate   them   from   the   heart." 

In  "Respublica"  dating  from  1553,  we  have  another  con- 
troversial drama  which,  in  contrast  to  the  two  just  considered, 
is  opposed  to  Protestantism.  It  represents  England  as  almost 
ruined  by  the  policy  of  Edward  VI  and  his  ministers.  These 
appear  in  the  play  under  the  abstract  names  of  Avarice.  Op- 
pression, Insolence,  and  Adulation.  They  plot  to  rob  Respublica 
and  divide  lands,  plate,  lordships,  "manour  places,"  castles,  towns, 
pastures,  and  woods  among  themselves.  • 

People  complains  :^^ 

"vor  we  ignoram  people 


wer  ner   so   ipolde   zo   wrong   and   zo   I — torment 

Lord  Jhese   Christe  whan   he  was   I — pounst  &   I — pilate 

Was   ner   so   i — trounst   as   we   have   been   of  yeares   late. 


We  passeive  ther  falleth  of  corne  and  cattail 

wull,   shepe,  woode,   leade,  tynne,   Iron  &  other  metall 

and  of  all  thinges,  enoughe  vor  goode  and  badde,"" 


and  yet  the  price  of  every  thing  is  so  dere 

As  thoughe  the  grounde  dyd  brynge  forth  no  such  no  where." 

After  the  four  vices  have  fleeced  Respublica,  they  report  to 
one  another  their  winnings:     Oppression  begins :^°" 


7Z 

"I  maie  were  myters  fower  or  fyve 
I   have   so   many  haulfe   bisshoprikes   at   the   leaste" 

We  left  the  best  of  them  a  thredebare  bishop." "' 

Avarice  says  his  bags  are  full  of  "old  aungelots  and  Ed- 
wardes."^"-  He  names  over  his  bags.  In  them  he  has  leases 
encroached  and  resold,  interest,  usury,  bribes,  sales  of  livings, 
clerks'  fees,  sectourships.  church  goods,  customs  filching,  forged 
wares,  exports  wrongful,  smuggled  goods.  He  rebukes  Oppres- 
sion for  not  being  able  to  understand  Latin : 

"Loe,  here  a  fyne  felowe  to  have  a  bishopricke!. 
A  verse  of  Latynne  he  cannot  understande. 
Yet  dareth   he   presume   boldely   to   take   in   hande 
Into  a  deanerie  or  archdeaconrye  to  choppe 
And  to  have  the  livelihood  awaie  from  a  bisshop.""' 

He  turns  to  his  own  policy  :"* 

"I  have  a  good  benefyce  of  an  hundred  markes 
Yt  is  smale  policie  to  give  suche  to  greate  clerkes  — 
They  will  take  no  benefice,  but  thei  must  have  all ! 
A  bare  clerke  canne  bee  content  with  a  lyvinge  smale 
Therefore  Sir  John  'Lacke  Latten  my  friend  shall  have  myne 
And  of  hym  maie  I   ferme  yt   for  eyght  powndes  or  nyne 
The  rest  maie  I   reserve  to  myself   for  myne  owne  share 
For  wee  are  good  feeders  of  the  poore.  so  we  are," 

Respublica,  however,  does  not  agree  with  him.  She  laments 
the  fate  of  priests  and  bishops  :^°^ 

"(Whan)    they  had  theire  lyvinges,   men   were  both   fedde   and   cladde." 

People  complains  of  the  heavy  taxes  :^°^ 

"Whan  chadwith  zwette  of  browes  got  up  a  fewe  smale  crummes 
Att  paiing  my  debtes  ich  coulde  not  make  my  sommes 


Thei  have  all  the  woodes  throughout  the   realme  destroyed. 
Which  might  have  served  long  yeares,  beeing  well  emploied 
&  than  the  great  cobbes  have  zo  take  the  rest  to  hire 
that  poore  volke  cannot  gett  a  sticke  to  make  a  fire."  ^"^ 

We  have  now  considered  all  the  Pre-Tudor  Moralities  and 
the  Early  Tudor  Moralities.  The  latter  are  similar  to  their 
predecessors    in    subject-matter.      They    still    use    the    old    gen- 


eralized  lament  over  the  corruption  of  the  times.  They  deal  with 
avarice,  uncharitableness,  immoral  clergy,  oppression  of  the  poor, 
bribery  in  the  law  courts,  inefficiency  of  public  officials,  and  the 
swav  of  fashion.  They  are,  however,  bolder  and  more  specific 
in  tlieir  charges  of  corruption  against  the  clergy.  Where  in  the 
Pre-Tudor  Moralities  we  have  the  suggestion  from  Mankind  that 
Envy  dwells  in  abbeys  ;  and  the  assertion  of  Lucifer  that  preachers 
are  false,  we  have  in  the  Early  Tudor  Moralities,  in  comparison 
with  these  two  sly,  and  unemphasized  thrusts,  whole  plays  prac- 
ticallv  given  up  to  accusations  of  the  church,  for  instance,  "Kynge 
Johan,"  "Three  Lawes,"  and  "Lusty  Juventus."  Even  the  staid 
])lay  "Everyman"  is  not  free  from  such  satire.  The  specific 
attack  is  upon  priests.  "Mundus  et  In  fans'"  does  not  hesitate 
in  representing  Folly  as  crowned  king  of  the  "freres"  and  a  wel- 
come lodger  in  abbeys.  Practically  the  same  thing  happens  in 
"Piers  Plowman"  and  in  the  Scottish  play  "Ane  Satyre  of  the 
Thrie  Estaitis."  "Hickscorner  emphasizes  the  bad  example  set 
bv  the  clergy  for  the  people,  complains  of  the  ignorance  of 
priests,  and  the  fear  of  the  few  honest  preachers  to  speak  the 
truth.  "Magnificence"  attacks  the  hypocrisy  of  canons,  priests, 
monks,  nuns,  and  friars.  The  object  of  satire  here,  however, 
is  principally  some  arrogant  upstart  who  has  wormed  his  way 
into  high  ecclesiastical  and  high  public  positions.  This  satire, 
thought  to  be  directed  at  Wolsey,  shows  an  advance  upon  the 
preceding  morality  plays  in  its  combination  of  personal,  relii^ious, 
and  political  satire.  A  still  further  advance  is  shown  in  the 
controversial  plays  written  by  John  Bale.  Hatiag  Rome  and 
the  Pope,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  be  specific  in  his  attacks ;  he  often 
descended  to  the  coarsest  kind  of  invective  and  abuse.  The 
only  play  which  retaliates  is  the  anonymous  "Respublica."  It  does 
not  answer  the  gross  charges  brought  against  the  Catholics  but 
represents  the  Protestant  advisers  of  Edward  AT  as  having 
brought  the  country  to  the  verge  of  ruin,  when  fortunately  for 
Ensfland  Queen  Marv  ascends  the  throne. 


CHAPTER    V. 


SATIRE   IN   THE    ELIZABETAAN   MORALITIES. 

As  Elizabethan  Moralities  we  list  according  to  the  "Cam- 
bridge History  of  English  Literature"  the  following  plays: 
"Wealth  and  Health,"  "Nice  Wantop,"  "Impatient  Poverty," 
"Godly  Queen  Hester,"  "King  Darius,"  "Albyon  Knyght,"  "The 
Life  and  Repentance  of  Mary  Magdalene,"  "The  Triall  of  Trea- 
sure," "Like  Wil  to  Like,"  "Marriage  of  Wit  and  Scyence," 
"Longer  thou  Livest  More  Fool  Thou  Art,"  "New  Custome," 
"Tide  tarrieth  No  Man,"  "All  For  Money,"  "The  Conflict  of 
Conscience,"  "The  Three  Ladies  of  london."  "The  Three  Lords 
and  Three  Ladies  of  London,"  "Contention  between  Liberalite 
and  Prodigalite,"  and  the  Scottish  play,  "Ane  Satyre  of  the 
Thrie  Estaitis."  This  last  play  though  presented  as  early  as  1540 
is  Elizabethan  in  spirit. 

These  twenty  plays  dating  from  1540  to  1600  have  for  their 
main  object  the  presentation  of  a  moral  lesson  by  means  of 
abstract  personified  characters  together  with  real,  individual 
characters.  They  are  merely  a  late  development  of  the  morality 
with  a  stronger  effort  in  most  of  them  toward  indirect  didac- 
ticism— satire.  This  satire  like  that  which  preceded  it  still  spends 
its  main  force  on  the  clergy,  reiterating,  though  not  so  coarsely, 
the  attacks  of  John  Bale  on  the  mummery  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church. 

Beginning  with  "Wealth  and  Health",  we  find  a  touch  of 
satire  on  the  Flemish  war.  The  Flemings  are  looked  upon  as 
intruders.  Their  representative  is  the  drunken  Hance  of  whom 
Will  says : 

"Such    dronken    flemminges    your    company    wil    mar."^ 

and  adds  :'- 

"by   war   in    flaunders    ther    is    welth    store." 

Lawyers  and  merchants  are  given  their  usual  characteristics  :^ 

"Men    of    the    lawe,    and    joly    rych    merchauntes 
These  be  welthy  both  of  goodes  and   lands," 
75 


76 

Helth  says  of  the  rich:* 

"When   a   man   is   lyttle   hit   and   welthy 
And  hath  in  his  cheste  treasures  plentyc 
Then   wyl   he  wrangle  and   do   shrewdly 
By  his   power  and   might 
With  his  neighboures  he  wyll  go  to  lawe 
And   a   wreke   his   malyce   for   valew    of    strawe 

The  next  play  "Nice  Wanton"  has  the  "prodigal  motive"  at 
its  basis.  There  are  two  "bad  children  and  one  "goody-goody." 
The  former  arouse  the  ire  of  Eulalia  a  neighbor  to  them.  Her 
comment  is  upon  the  rearing  of  children  :^ 

"Lord   what    folly   is   in   youth 
How  unhappy  be   children   now-a'-days 
And  the  more  pity  to  say  the  truth 
Their  parents  maintain  them  in  evil  ways." 

Further  the  baily  is  represented  as  trying  to  bribe  the  judge 
to  let  the  criminal  Ismael  go  :^ 

"The  man  is   come  of  good   kin 
If  your  lordship  would  be   so  good  to   me 
As   for  my  sake  to  set  him   free 
I   could  have  twenty  pounds   in   a  purse 
Yea   and   your   lordship   a    rightt    fair   horse 
Well  worth  ten  pound." 

The  judge,  however,  proves  incorruptible. 
In  "Impacyent  Poverty"  the  typical  usurer  appears  in  Ha- 
boundance.     He  explains  his  methods  of  making  money  'J 

"I   sell   my  ware  so  dear 
1   make  XL  of  XX  in  halfe  a  veare." 


Envy  boasts :" 

"Sometyme  beloved  I  was  wyth  the  spyritualitye 
But   now   coveteouse  and   symony  doeth   them   so  avauce 
That   good    instvtutvon   is   turned   to   other   ordvnaunce." 


To'Conscience's  remark:" 

"In  holy  cliurcli  symony  can  not  abyde." 


77 

Envy  retorts  r^" 

"He  goeth  in  a  clocke,  he  can  not  be  espyde 
And  covetouse   so   crabtely   doth  prouyde 
That   bonus   pastor   oyium    is    blynd    and   wyl   not   see !" 

Mysrule  comments  on  the  rapid  rise  of  upstart  foreigners: 

"Colehasarde   came   late   from  beyond  the   see 
Ragged  and  torne  in  a  garded  cote 
And  in  his  purse  never  a  grote 
And  now  he  goeth   lyke   a   lorde." 

To  Prosperity's  question,  "Is  he  a  gentleman  bore?"  Envy 
answers  :^^ 

"Tushe  take  no  thought  therefore 
For   be   he   gentleman   knave   or   boye 
If  he  come  hether  with  tryfle  or  a  toye 
He   can   no  money   lacke." 

In  "Godly  Queen  Hester"  we  have  a  drama  which  may  have 
been  written  by  John  Skelton.  Like  "Magnificence"  it  satirizes 
some  upstart  who  has  become  exceedingly  powerful.  If  Skelton 
wrote  the  play,  Cardinal  VVolsey  must  have  been  the  prototype 
of  Aman.    Of  him  Pride  says:^- 

"I   tell  you  at  a   worde,  Aman  that   newe   lorde 
Hathe  bought  up  all  good  clothe 

And  hath  as  many  gownes  as  would  serve  ten  townes 
Be  ye  never   so  lothe ! 

And  any  manne  in  the  towne  doe  bye  him  a  good  gowne 
He  is  very  wrothe 
And  wyll  hym  strayte  to  tell  the  statute  of  apparell 


Wherefore   by  this   daye,   I   dare  not  goe   gaye 
Threde  bare  is   my  hoode." 

'For  all  law  est  and  west  &  adulation  in  his  chest 
Aman  hath  locked   faste. 

And  by  his  crafti   patience  hath   law   into   flattering 
So  that  fyrst  and  laste 

The  client  must  pay  or   the  lawyer  assaye 
The  lawe   for  to  clatter 
And  whe  ye  wene  he  saide  right,  I  assure  you 

by  this   light. 
He   doth  not  els  but  flatter 

"For  yf  Aman  wynkes,  the  lawyer  shrynkes 
And  not  dare  say  yea  nor  naye 


7cS 


And  yf   he  speaks   the  law  the  other  calles   him   daw 
No  more  then  dare  he  say, 

So  that  was  law  yisterday,  is  no  lawe  thys  daye 
But  flatterynge  lasteth  alway,  ye  may  me  beleve." 

"Dyvines  yt  do  preache,  me  thynkes  they  should  teache 
And    flatteryng    reprove." 

Adulation  replies  :^^ 

'Syr  they  have  lefte  prechyng  &  take  them  to  flatterynge 
moste  part  of  them   all 


When  they  preached,   and  the  truthe  teached 

Sume   of   them    caughte   a   knocke 

And  they  yt  should  assisted,  I   wote  not  how  they  were  brysted 

"But   they   did   nothing   but   mocke. 
And  that  sawe  they,  and  gate  them  away 
As  fast  as  myght  be 

They  sold  theyr   woll  and  purchased   a  bull 
Wyth   a  pluralyte 

And  lefte  predication,  and   toke  adulation 
They  gat   the  nomynation   of   every   good   benefyce 
So  better  by  flatterynge  then   by  preachynge 

'For  yf  yt  be  a  good   fee.   .\min   sayeth   that  longeth   to  me 
Be  it  benefyce   or  parke." 

A  general  criticism  of  the  times  follows  :^* 

"Sum  tyme  where  was  plenty  now  ye  barnes  be  empti 
And    many   men    lackes    bread. 

And   wher   som  tyme  was   meat  ther   now   is   none   to  get 
But  all  be  gone  and  dead. 

Bec9:"rs  now   do  banne  and   crye  out  of   Aman, 
That    ever    he    was   borne. 

They  swere  by  the  roode,  he  eatyth  up  all   their  foode 
So  that  they  get  no  goode,  neyther  even   nor  morne 


And   nowe   the   dores   standes   shet   and   no   man   can   we  ge; 
To  worcke  neither  to  fvghte. 


"Aman   Handelles  all  thynge  so 
That  every  office  and   fee,  what  soever  it  bee 
That  may  be  sene  and   founde 

By  his  wit  he  wyl  it  featche  and  or  it  fal  he  wul  it  catche. 
That  never  commeth  to  the  grounde.""' 


79 

There  are  two  other  references  and  then  we  leave  this  play. 
The  first  speaks  of  lying  friars  and  the  second,  "Carnifex  Aman"^® 
may  mean  Wolsey  whose  father  is  said  to  have  been  a  butcher. 

That  incoherent  play  "King  Darius"  has  little  satire.  It 
contains,  however,  a  few  allusions  to  the  Pope.  Equity's  prayer, 
for  instance, — ^' 

"And    plucke    from    theyr    malycyousness 
Theyr  papystry  and  all  theyr  coveytousness." 

and  Iniquity's  reference  to  his  father:^® 

"In   Rome  he   dwelleth,   that  is   his  common  place 
Where   all  other  bowe  before  hys   face 
All   nations    to   hym   do   obaye 
And  never  agayne  hym  a  prowde  word  dare  say 
I  warrant  you  hys  landes  are  very  greate, 
He  doth  poule  poore  men  and  lyveth  by  theyr  sweat 
He  hath  as  much  landes  I  warrant  you 
As  lyeth  between  thys  and  Southhampton 
Every   house   that   standeth  between  thys   and  that 
Are  his,  by  my  trouth  I  say,  I  care  not  what." 

There  is  also  a  trace  of  the  conventional  satire  on  woman  :^^ 

"Alany  one   in   earth   there   is 
That  loveth  his  wyfe  wonderous  well  ywisse 
Out  of  theyr  wyts  also  they  do  run 
And  bond  slaves  for  their  wives  sake  are  become, 
Peryshed  also  many  have 
And  are  become  Sathans  bond  slave 
Many  also  are   fallen  into  syn  * 

And  all  through  the  cause  of  women." 

The  next  play  to  be  considered  is  a  political  morality.  It 
is  the  only  one  of  the  kind  extant  and  is  a  mere  fragment.  This 
"Albyon  Knyght"  pictures  the  government  as  torn  by  factions 
which  prevent  the  passage  of  good  laws  and  the  execution  of 
those  which  already  exist.     I  quote :-" 

"Where  Justice  is  treited  with   due  equitie 
And  where  no  fauour  nor  mede  shuld  bee 
And  when   reason   hath  tried   there  everie  deale 
That  such  an  acte  were  good  for  the  comen  weale 
If  therein  anie  losse  may  bee 
To  the  disaduantage  of   Principaiitie 
Such  an  acte  leseth  all  hvs  sute 


With   a   lytic   indoysing  of   reason   astute 

And  if  it  touche  the  Lordes  Sprytuall 

Or  be   (disadvantage)    to  the  Lordes  temporall 

Fare  well  go  hett,  this  bill  may  slepe 

As  well  as  through  the  parlyament  crepe 

And  if  that  Marchauntes  be  moouid  with  all 

Or  any  multitude  of  the  comen  hall 

This  not  for  us  say  they  than 

This  bill  is  naught  but  to  wype  a  pan 

And  this   is   all  your  new  equitie." 

Injury,  a  vice,  masking  as  Manhood  says  to  Albion  :^^ 

"For  with  hie  reason  they  saie  ye  can  dispute 
And    trie   out    perils   with    laborous    sute 
And  eke  the  treasure  for  the  comen  vaile 
As  far  as  wit  or  reason  can  assaile 
But  when  all  is  done  and  your  statute  made 
Then   forth   ye  go  in   a  wise  trade 
To  brynge  it  all  to  good  conclusion 
And   put   it   never   in   execucyon 
Then  speke  they   further  in  steede  of  a  mocke 

"They  have  made  a  statute  lyke  a  woodkoke 
That  hath  but  one  eye  and  the  other  blynde 
And  it   wyll   turne  with   every  wynde." 

Injury's  solioquy  contains  some  satire  on  the  law  i'^ 

"&than    of    mee    croaketh    every    man 
How   lyke  a   Lorde  this   fellow  stere  can 
The  law  to  defend  without  a  fall 
For  all  theyr  pledying  in  Westminster  hall 
*  Or  say  what  they  wyll  and  bable  there 

Yet  mayntenaunce  and  I  wyll  kepe  the  chere 

Division  an  accomplice  of  Injury  plots  to  stir  up  strife:-^ 

"Fyrst  I  myselfe  wyll  enterpryse 
That  peace   shall   have   no   exersyse 
Betweene  the  comons  and  Pryncypalitie 
Nor  betweene  lords  spiritual  &  lords  of  the  tcmporalite 

He  will  send  Double  Devyce  "Pryncypalyte  and  the  comons 
to  set  at  dy vysyon ;  and  as  to  Old  Debate,  he  says  :-* 

"Hym   wyll   I   send    to   the   lordes   spirituall 
To  cause  them  to  wrangle  wt  the  lords  temporall 
The  one  to  principalytie   shall   surmyse 
Thai    '.he  comons   hartes   do  aryse 


8i 

Against  him  when   that  he  dpth  aske 

In  tj^me  of  neede,  our  monej-  for  to  taske 

His  harte  to  mooue  with  such  vnkyndness 

Then  the  same  spye  shall  vse  lyke  doublenes 

And  go  the  comons  and  to  them  tell 

That   Principalytie  with  equitie  doth   rebell 

More  to  hys  lucre  in  euerie  deale 

Applyeng  his  affection  then  to  the  comen  weale 

"And   how   that  he  of  neglygence 
Doth  not  apply  for  theyr  defence 
Neither  by   Sea  nor   by   lande 
Neither  by  hye   wayes,   neither  by   stron'de 
But   theves   and   raveners   and   murders   eke 
Dayly   true   men   they  pursue   and   seke 
^  And   that   his   laws   indifferently 

Be  not  used  but   maintenance   and  brybary 
Is  suffred  alone  without  reformacion 
That  the  poore  comons  is   in   altercation 
Of  this   matter  and   wote  not  what  to   say 
Brynging  them  in  opinion  yt  they  ought  not  to  pay 
To  pryncypalytie  theyr  duety  of  very  desarte 
Except  lyke  duetie  be  mynistred  on  hys  parte." 

Old  Debate:-^ 

"Shall  enfourme  the  lordes  temporal! 
That  the  spyrytuall  men  wolde  rule  all." 

In  "The  Life  and  Repentance  of  Mary  Magdalene"  the  sa- 
tire is  scattering.  It  consists  of  a  few  trite  remarks  on  immoral 
priests,  dress  and  women.     "Infidelitie  the  \^ice  boasts  :-® 

" with   the  chief   princes   now   I   do   dwell: 


The  bishops,  priests  and  pharisees  do  me  so  retayne 
That  the  true  sense  of  the  lawe  they  do  disdayne." 

xA.fter  dressing  up  to  tempt  Mary,  he  comments  on  his  per- 
sonal appearance  :-^ 

"Lyke   obstinate   Friers   I   temper   my   looke 
Which  had  one  eie  on  a  wench,  an  another  on  a  boke." 

On  women  he  says :-® 

"This    is   a    true   proverb    and    no    famed    fable 

"Few  women's   words  be  honest,   constant,   and   stable." 


aTid- 


82 


"Tlio   hoddc    vvlierin    lietli    any    married    wife 
Is  never  without  cliidyn^,  l)rawling.  and  strife." 


The  advice  given  to  Mary  by  Pride,  Cupiditie,  Infidelitie.  and 
tl'.e  malicious  judge  is  satirical.     Pride  says:^" 

"Take  vow  none  but  gentlemen  with  velvet  coates  ; 
It  is  to  be  thought  that  they  are  not  without  groates." 

Cupidite  adds : 

"in  any  wise  see  tliat  your  lovers  lie  young  and  gry 
And   suche   fellowes  as  be   well  al)le  to  pay." 

The  malicious  judge  remarks:'^ 

"Women's  heartes  turne  oft  as  d'lth  the  wynde, 
And  agayne  of  the  law  they  know  not  the  sense." 

His  opinion  of  the  value  of  hypocrisy  is  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing remark  :^- 

"Tushe,   hyde   self    in   a    Pharisees   gowne 
Such  a  one  as  is  bordered  with  the  commaundments 
And  then  thou  must  dwell  both  in  citie  and  in  towne 
Being  well  accepted  in  all  men's  judgments." 

The  next  play  "The  Triall  of  Treasure"  is  not  satirical. 
Just  replies  sarcastically  to  the  vice,  Lust,  who  has  ridiculed 
her  somber  garments  :^^ 

"Mine   apparel   is   not   like  unto   thine 
Disguised  and   jagged   of   sundry   fashion 
Howbeit  it  is  not  gold  always  that  doth   shine 
Rut   corrupting   copper   of    small    valuation." 

and  Lu.st  refers  to  Smithfield  as  his  favorite  locality.^* 

In  "Like  Wil  to  Like"  (1568)  Nichol  Newfangle  the  Vice 
asserts  that  he  has  been  under  the  instruction  of  Lucifer.  From 
him  he  says  :^^ 

"I    learn'd   to   make    ruffs   like   calves   chitterlines 
Caps,   hats,   coats,    with    all    kind   of   apparels 
And    especially    breeches   as    big   as    good    barrels 
Shoes,   boots,    buskins    with    many    pretty    toys." 


83 

To  Lucifer's  request  that  he  bring  people  under  the  sway  of 
fashion,  he  says  :^® 

"Tush,   Tush,   that  is  already  brought  to  pass 
For  a  very  skipjack  is  prouder  I  swear  by  the  mass 
And  seeketh  to  go  more  gayer  and  more  brave 
Than  doth  a  lorde  though  himself  be  a  knave." 

Tom  the  ColHer  boasts  of  his  abiHty  to  cheat  :^^ 

"To   every   bushel   cha   zold   but   three   peck 
Lo,   here  be  the   empty   zacks   on   my   neck 
cha  beguild  the  whoresons  that  of  me   ha'  bought 
But   to   beguile   was   their   whole   thought. 


It   is   a   common   trade   nowadays   this   is   plain 
To   cut   one   another's   throat    for   lucre   and   gain. 

Tom  Tosspot,  another  boisterous  character,  as  his  name 
implies,  says  :^^ 

"I  am  acquainted   with   many  a  woman 
That  with  me  will  sit  in  every  house  and  place 
But  then  their  husbands  had  need  fend  their  face 
For  when  they  come  home,  they  will  not  be  areard 
To  shake  the  goodman  and  sometimes  shave  his  beard, 
And  as   for   Flemish   servants   I   have   such   a  train 
That  will  quass  and  carouse  and  therein  spend  their  gain 

In  a  likestrain  Ralph  Roister  says  :^^ 

"And  I  may  say  to  you   I  have  such  a  train 
That  sometime  I  pitch  a  field  on   Salisbury  plain." 

There  are  references  to  places  of  execution,*"  such  as, 
Tyburn,  and  Thomas-a-waterings.  Newfangle  in  his  description 
of  the  gallows  to  Cutpurse  and  Pickpurse  uses  figurative  lan- 
guage :" 

"This  piece  of  land  whereto  you  inheritors  are 
Is   called  the  land  of  the  two-legged  mare 
In  which  piece  of  ground  there  is  a  mare  indeed 
Which  is  the  quickest  mare  in  England  for  speed." 

In  "Longer  thou  Livest  more  Fool  thou  Art"  the  generalized 
lament  voiced  by  Exercitation  appears  :*- 

"Certaine  persons  I  coulde  rehearse  by  name 
Have   pretended   a   great  perfection 


84 

And  why?  to  avoydc  punishment  and  sliame 
Due   for   their  vicious   infection: 
As   sum   have   entred   into   religion 
Wherefore?  because  they  will  not  pay  their  det." 

Discipline  shakes  his  head  and  agrees  that  the  times  are 
degenerate  :** 

"Two    thingcs    destroyc   youth    at   this   day 
Indulgentia  parentum,  the  fondness  of  parents 
Which   will  not   correct  their  nought   ways 
But  rather  embolden  them  in  there  entents : 
Idlenesse,   alas,    Idlenesse   is    another 
who    so    passeth    through    England 
To   se    the    vouth    he    would    wonder 


God  preserve  London,  that  noble  citie.'' 

People  adds  his  complaint  :** 

"Good  Lord  how  are  we  now  molested ! 
The  devill  hath  sent  one  into  our  countrie 
A  monstre  whom  God  and  man  hath  detested 
By  honest  men  he  setteth  not  an  oynion — " 

Discipline  gives   some  advice  which   ends   in   satire   on   the 
Pope  :*^ 

"Companie   not   with    any    Heretike. 
An   Heretike   him   holy   Doctors   do   call, 
Which    erreth    in    God's    most    sacred    Scripture, 
Which  is  blinde  and  seeth  not  his  owne  fall. 
But   maliciously   doth   in    errour   endure. 
The  greatest  Heresie  that  ever  was 
Hath  the  pope  and  his  adherents  published. 
Yea.  the  Heresie  of  Arius  it  doth  passe 
For    Christe    and    his    benefits    it    hath    extinguished 
Example  by  the  wicked  masse  satisfactorie 
Which   to   Christes   death   they   make  equivalent. 
For  they  call   it   a   sacrifice  propiciatorie. 
Which   is   an   Heresie   most   pestilent. 
Agayne,  praier  to  Sainctes  that  be  dead. 
Which  is  a  poynte  of   infidelitie." 

In  "Xew  Ctistom"   (1573)   we  have  a  controversial  drama. 
Perverse  Doctrine  hegins  :*" 

" the   world   was  never   in   so   evil   astate 

Do  you   not   see  how   these  naw-fangled   pr.ittling   elves 
Prink  up  so  pertly  of  late  in   every   place 
And   go   about   us   ancients   flatly   to   deface." 


85 
Against  conceited  preachers,  he  says  :*^ 

"For  how  should  they  have  learning  that  were  born  but   even   now 
As  fit  sight  it  were  to  see  a  goose  shod  or  a  saddled  cow 
As  to   hear  the   prattling   of   any   such   Jack   Straw 
For  when  he  hath   all   done  I   count  him  but  a  daw 
As  in   London   not   long  since,  you   wot  well   where 
They  sang  to  a  sermon  and  we  chanced  to  be  there 
Up   stert  the   preacher,   I    think   not   past  twenty   years   old 
With  a  sounding  voice  and   audacity  bold 

And  began   to   revile   at  the  holy   sacraments   and   transubstantiation. 
What  young  men  to  be   meddlers   in   divinity?   it   is   a  goodly   sight! 
Yet   therein   now   almost   is   every   boy's   delight 
No  book  now  in  their  hands  but  all   scriptures,   scriptures 
Either  the   whole  Bible  or  the   New  Testament  you   may   be   sure, 


They  have   revoked   divers  old   heresies   out  of  hell 

As   against   transubstantiation,   purgatory,   and   mass 

And  say  that  by  Scripture  they  cannot  be  brought  to  pass." 

They  have  brought  in  one,  a  young  upstart  lad,  as  it  appears 

I  am  sure  he  hath  not  been  in  the  realme  very  many  yeares 

With  a  gathered  frock,  a  polled  head  and  a  broad  hat 

An  unshaved  beard,  a  pale  face ;  and  he  teaceth  that 

All  our  doings  are  nought,   and  hath   been  many   a  day 

He  disallowed  our  ceremonies  and  rites,  and  teaceth  another  way 

To  serve  God,  than  that  which  we  do  use*' 


It  is  a  pestilent  knave,  he  will  have  priests  no  corner  caps  to  wear 
Surplices  are  superstition  ;  beads,  paxes  and  such  other  gear 
Crosses,  bells,  candles,  oil,  bran,  salt,   spittle,  and   incense. 
With   censing  and  singing,   he  accounts   not  worth   three  half-pence 

And  cries  out  on   them   all 

Such   holy  things   wherein   our   religion   doth   consist 
But  he   commands   the   service   in   Englysh   to   be   read." 

New  Custom  praises  the  good  old  times  :*^ 

"If  neighbours  were  at  variaunce  ;  they  ran  not  straight  to  law 
Daysmen   took   up   the   matter   and  cost   them    not   a   straw 


Adultery  no  vice,   it   is   a  thing   so   rife^" 

A  stale  jest  to  be  with   another  man's   wife! 

Covetousness  they  call 
Good    husbandry    when    one   would    fain    have    all. 


Whoso  will  be  so  drunken  that  he  scarcely  knovveth  his  way 

O,  he  is  a  good  fellow,  so  now-a-days  they  say  >^^k  1 


86 


Gluttony    is   hospitality,    while    they    meat    and    drink    spill 
Which   would  relieve  disease  whom    famine  doth  kill 


Theft  is  but  policy,   perjury  but  a   face." 

Referring  to  the  Catholic  Church,  he  says  :^^ 

"Brought   they    in    their    monsters,   their    masses,    their   lights 
Their  torches  at  noon  to  darken  our  sight 
Their   popes   and   ther   pardons,   their   purgatories    for    souls 
Their  smoking  of  the  church  and  flinging  of  coals; 

Hypocrisy  urges  Perverse  Doctrine  to  continue  his  reHgious 
pretences  :^- 

"Still   pretend    religion,   whatsoever   you    say 
And  that   shall  get  thee  good  credit  alway 
Pleasing  the  multitude  with  such  kind  of  gear 
Square   caps,  long  gowns  with   tippets   of   silk 
Brave   copes   in   the   church,   surplices  as   white   as   milk 
Beads   and   such  like." 

Perverse  Doctrine  tells  of  his  dififiiculties  r'^ 

"For    since    these    new    heretics,    the    devil    take    them    all. 
In  all  corners  began  to  bark  and  bawl 
At  the   Catholic   faith   and   the  old   religion 


Hypocrisy  hath  so  helped  at  every  need. 

In  "Tyde  Tarrieth  No  Man"  we  are  reminded  of  the  "Ship 
of  Fools"  when  Corage  the  Vice  invites  all  to  his  barge  :^* 

"There    are    usurers    great    who    with    their    braynes    do    beat 
In   devising  of  guyles,  False   dealers   also 
A  thousand  and  mo  which  know  store  of  wyles 


"Crafty  cutpurses,  maydens  mylchnurses 
Wives  of  the  stampe  who  love  mo  then  one. 

"Husbands  as  good  as  wigges  made  of  wood 
We  have  there   also,   with   servauntes   so   sure 
As  packthred   most  pure   which   men   away  throw. 

"And  some  by  Corage  now  and  then 
at   Tiborne   make   their   will.'"" 


87 

Greediness  tells  of  the  preacher  who  scored  evil  citizens  and 
Helpe  of  methods  which  were  worthy  of  condemnation:^*^ 

" we  love  best  with  straungers  to  deale 


To  sell   a  lease   dear,   whoever  that  will 

At  the  french  or  dutch  church  let  him  set  up  his  bill 

And   he   shall   have   chapmen   I   warrant  you  good   store 

Looke  what  an  English  man  bids,  they  will  give  as  much  more. 

Furtheraunce  uses  similar  methods  :^' 

"I   will  worke  so  on  both  the  sydes, 
That   of   both   parties   I   will   obtayne   brybes 

The  Courtier  next  tells  how  he  has  been  duped  :^* 

"Each  man  then  a  porcion  would  have 
The   marchaunt   for   loue,   the   Broker   for   his   payne 
And  the  scrybe  for  wrytyng,  ech   man  had  a  gayne." 

At  the  close  of  the  play,  Corage  is  dragged  off  for  punish- 
ment by  Correction.     As  he  is  led  off,  he  asks  the  spectators:^* 

"Is   there  no   man   here   that   hath   a   curst  wife 
If   he   will   in   my   stead,   he   shall   end   his   life." 

In  "All  for  Money"  (1578)  the  satire  is  as  the  name  of  the 
play  implies,  chiefly  on  money.  Theologie  says  :*'° 

"So  many  would  not  study  me  but   for  money 
And  thereby  to   live  and   in   wealth 
The  bishop,  the  priest,   and  the   doctour   of   divinitee 
Would  give  over  their  studie  not  regarding  their  soul's  health 
And   use   some   other   things,    for   as   it   appeareth 
The   artificer   doth   leave   his   arte   and   occupyng 
And   becomes   a   minister   for  monev   and   easie   living" 


For  the  wicked  riche  man   and  the  lover  of  money 

Regarde  but  for  gayne  neither  you  nor  me 

So  they  have  money  they  care  not  for  us  a  gnate"**^ 

"Many   marchant   man    that   is   ryght    simple   borne 
With   unsociable   games   encreaseth   more   and   more 
He  will  not  abate  his  price  for  helpyng  the  poore. 

Money  boasts  :®- 

"The  doctor,  the  draper,  the   plowman,   the  carter 
In   me   have   their   joy   and   pleasure 


88 


Money  is  my  name,  all  over  is  my  fame 
I   dwell   with  every  degree. 


The   smith   and   the   shoemaker,   tlic   minstrell,   the   daunser 
With  me  will   drink  and  be  mearie 


Yea  manie  loves  me  better  then  God. 

For  servants  and  prentises  will  privily  robbe  their  masters 

To  me  they  have  such  a  minde." 

Learning  without  Money  scores  the  learned  rich  :^' 

"Of  manie  learned  riche  I  craud  but  could  get  nought. 
But  the  poore  sorte  unlearned  haue  given  me  to   feede; 
Many  that  be  learned  and  riches  haue  with  all 
Are  more  out  of  frame  then  some  who  nothing  haue  at  all 
Their  learning  makes  them  think  with  their  riches  to  be  so  strong 
That  they  will  oppresse  their  neighbour  be  it  never  so  wrong" 

Money  without  Learning  taunts  him  :*'* 

"Who   will   esteeme   thee   onlesse  thou   haue   lining?" 

Learning  without  Money  then  discusses  the  inconsistencies 
of  the  rich  •.'^^ 

"For  it  is  the  nature  of  the  churlish   rich  man 
To  be   friend  to   such   as  of  him   standes   no  neede 
But  if  his  riches   fayle   farewell   friendship  than 
He  will   not  then  bid  him   with  hime  once  to   feede." 

Money  without  Learning  rejoices  that  though  he  has  no 
learning  to  defend  his,  yet  he  has  in  his  bags  "a  friend  will 
pleade — in   Westminster   Hall."*'*' 

Money  maintains  that  he  is  very  influential 


.67 


"I  have  made  many  a  crooked  matter  straight 
The  theefe  that  was  all   night  robbing  and  stealing 
If  I  beare  him  witness  was  all  night  in  his  bed  sleeping 
A  man's  wife  taken  in  bed  with  another 
Coulde  have  no  harme  when   I   did  excuse  her 
When  I   spoke  she  was  taken  to  be  of  good  behaviour. 
There  was  a  man  killed  and  twenty  witnesses  by 
But  I   said  he  killed  himself   with   his   owne   dagger 
And  when   I  had  spoken  everie  one  held  his  peace 
.^nd  then  the  officers  the  murtherer  did  release." 


89 

Synne  comments  on  the  priest  Sir  Lawrence  Livingless  :®^ 

"I  promise  you  he  is  very  well  learned  if  you  wish  to  oppose  him 
But  it  must  not  be  in  Greek,  Ebrewe,  nor  Latin 
A  cure  he  is  able  sufficiently  to  discharge 
He  can  reade  very  well  upon  a  paire  of  cardes." 

Sir  Lawrence,  however,  proves  unable  to  tell  Synne  how 
many  epistles  Paul  write  after  his  conversion.    He  answers  :®^ 

"By  the  masse  he  writ  to  manie 
I   would   they   were   all   burned 

For  had  they  not  bene  and  the  newe  Testament  in  English 
I  had  not  lacked  living  at  this  time  I   wisse 
Before  the  people  knew  so  much  of  the  Scripture 
Then  they  did   obey  us   and  loved  us  out  of   measure 
And  nowe  we  can  not  go  in  the  streets  without  a  mocke." 

"The  Conflict  of  Conscience"   is  a  satire   on  the   Catholic 
church  and  its  ceremonies,  Satan  is  made  to  say :'" 

"So-  hath   my  boy   devised   very   well 
Many  pretty  toys  to  keep  men's  souls  from  hell 
Live  they  never  so  evil  here  and  wickedly 
As  masses,  trentals,  pardons  and  scala  coeli." 

Avarice  and  Tyranny  tell  of  their  influence  with  the  clergy. 
The  former  says  :^^ 

"Well   may   the   clergy   on   our   side   hold 
For   they   by   us    no   small    gain    did    reap 
But  all  the   temporalty   I   dare  be  bold 
To  venture  in  wager  of  gold  a  good  heap 
At   our    preferments    will    mourn,    wail,    and    weep." 

Tyranny  replies  :'■ 

"In  the  clergy  I  know  no   friends  we  shall   want 
Which  for  hope  of  gain  the  truth  will  recant 
And  give  themselves  wholly  to  set  hypocrisy 
Being  egged  on  by  Avarice  and  defended  by  Tyranny." 

Hypocrisy  tells  of  the  plans  made  by  him  and  the  pope:^* 

"The   Pope  and   I   together  have   devised 
Firstly  to  inveigle  the  people  religious 
For  greediness  of  gain  who  will  be  soon  pressed 
And  for  fear  lest  hereafter  they  should  be  despised 
Of  their  own  free  will  maintain  Hypocrisy 
So  that  z\varice  alone  shall  conquer  the  clergy." 


90 

Caconos  the  priest  is  a  satire  on  the  ignorance  of  church  offi- 
cials and  their  consequent  inefficiency.  He  rejoices  over  the  per- 
secution of  lieretics  and  the  restoration  of  Catholic  ceremonies  :''* 

*' new  agen  within  awer  land  installed  is  the  Pope 


Whese  legate  with  authority  tharaward  awr  -country  goth 


Far  to  spay  awt,  gif  that  he  mea,  these  new-sprang  arataics 

Whilk  de  disturb  awr  hally  kirk  laik  a  sect  of  saysmatics 

Awr  gilden  Gods  ar  brought  agen   intea  awr  kirks  ilkwhare 

That   unte  tham   awr  parishioner   ma   offer   thar  gude-will 

For  holly  mass  in  ilk  place  new  thea  autars  de  prepare 

Hally  water,  pax,   cross,  banner,   censer,   and  candell 

Cream,   crismatory,   holly  bread,   the   rest   omit   ay   will 

Whilt   hally   fathers   did   invent   fre   awd   antiquity 

.Be  new   received   inte  awr  kirks   with   great  solemnity 

Bay.  these  though  lemen  been  apprest.  the  clargy  all  but  gean 

Far  te  awr  sents  theis  affer  yifts  all  whilk  we  sail  receive 

Awr  hally  mass,  thaw  thea  bay  dere,  thea  de  it  but  in  vain 

Far  thaw  ther  frends  frer  Purgatory  te  help  thea  dea  believe 

Yet  of  ther  hopes,  gif  need  rewhayre,  it  wawd  theam  all  deceive 

Sea  wawd  awr   pilgrimage,   reliques,   trentals   and   pardons 

Whilk  for  awr  geyn  wite  awr  Kirk  ar  brought  in  far  the  nonce. 

Far  well  a  nere  what  war  awr  tenths   and  taythes  that  gro  in   Hid 

What  gif  we  han  of  glebed  land  ene  plawark  bay  the  year 

Awr  offring  dear   de  vara   laytell   ar   nething  te   us   yield 

Awr  beadrool  geanes,  awr  chrisom  clethes  de  laytle  mend  awr  fare 

Gif  awt  of  this  we  pea   far  vale,   we  laytle  more  can   spare. 

Sawlmasses,   diriges.   moneth   mayndes   and   buryings 

Alsowlnday,    kirkings,    banasking    and    weddings 

The  sacraments,  if  we  mowt  sell,  war  better  than  thea  alle 

Far  gif  the  Jews  gave  thratty  pence  te  hang   Chraist  on   a   tree 

Gude  Christian  folk  thrayse  thratty  pence  wawd  count  a  price  but  small 

Sea  that  te  eat  him  with  their  teeth  delaivered  he  mawght  be 

New  of  this   thing  delaiverance  ne   man   can   make  but  we 

Se  that  the  market  in  this  punt  we  priests  sawd  han  at  will 

And  with  the  money  we  sowd  get  awr  poodies  we  sowd   fill." 

When  Tyranny  informs  him  that  he  has  a  commission  to 
search  his  house  for  seditious  books,  he  exclaims  in  great  sur- 
prise :'^ 

"Whe  ay?  wel  a  near,  ay  swear  bay  the  sacrament 
Ay   had    rather   han    a   cup    of   nale   than    a    Testament." 

and  he  replies  to  Hypocrisy's  question.  How  he  can  discharge 
his  office  without  it  by  saying: 


91 

"It  is  the  least  thing  ay  car  far,  bay  my  charge 
Far  se  lang  as  thea  han   images  wharon  te   luke 
What  need  thea  be  distructed  awt  af  a  buik?" 

"For  in   my  portace  the  tongue  ay   de  nat  know 
Yet  when  ay   see  the  great  gilded  letter 
Ay  ken  it  sea  well,  as   nea  man  den   better 
As   far  example :   on   the   day  of   Chraist's   nativity 
Av  see  a  bab  in  a  manger  and  two  beasts   standing  bv 


The  service  whilk  to  New  Year's  day  is  assignd 

Bay   the   paicture   of   the   circumcision    ay    faynd 

The   service   whilk  on  Twalfth   day  mun   be   done 

Ay   seeke   bay   the   mark   of   the   three   kings   of    Cologne 

Bay   the    devil    tenting    Chraist   ay    find    whadragesima. 

Bay  Chraist  on   the  cross  ay  serch  out  gude-fraiday. 

Ayenst  Hall-Thursday  is  pented  Christ's  Ascension 

Thus  in  mayn  own  buke  ay  is  a  gude  clerk : 

But  gif  the  sents  war  gone,  the  cat  had  eat  my  mark 

Se   the  sandry   mairacles,   whilk   ilk   sent   have   done, 

Bay  the   pictures  on   the   walls   sal   appear  to   them   soon 

Bay   the   whilk   thes   ar   learned   in    every   distress 

What  sent  thei  mun  prea  te  for  succour,  doubtless 

Sea   that  all   lepers   to   Sylvester   must   prea 

That  he  wawd  frae  tham  ther  disease  take  away 

Besides  this  ignorant  type  of  priests  there  is  another  church 
official  higher  up  who  is  represented  as  unworthy.  The  Car- 
dinal thinks  of  his  own  comfort  first  when  he  says  'J^ 

"I    will    not   lose   one   meal   of   my   diet 
Though    therein    did    hang    an    hundred    men's    fait." 

The  "Three  Ladies  of  London"  deals  with  the  same  satirical 
matter  as  the  preceding  plays.  By  love  we  have  the  importance 
of  Lucre  presented. ''^ 

"Tis  Lucre  now  that   rules  the  roost ;   'tis  she  is  all   in  all 
'Tis  she  that  holds  her  head  so  stout,  in  fine,  'tis  she  that  works  our  fall. 


"For   lucre   men   come    from   Italy,    Barbary,   Turkey 
From  Jewry;   nay   Pagan   himself 
Endangers  his  body  to  gape   for  pelf 

They    forsake    mother,    prince,    country,    religion,    kiff,    and    kin 
Nay  men  care  not  what  they   forsake  so  Lady  Lucre  they  win." 

Simplicity  says  that  he  has  known  Fraud  before  at  Ware 
and  Gravesend."^    On  Simony  he  says  :'^ 


92 

"And   Simony-a-per-se-a-   Simony,   too,  he   is  a  knave   for 

the  nonce. 
He   loves   to  have   twenty   livings   at   once 
And   if  he  let  an  honest  as  I   am  to  have  one 
He'll  let  it  so  dear  that  he  shall  be  undone 
And  he  seeks  to  get  persons  living  into  liis  hand 
And  puts  in  some  old  dunce  that  to  his  payment  will  stand 
So  if  the  parsonage  be  worth  40  or  50  £  a  year 
He  will  give  one  20  nobles  to  mumble  service  once  a  month  there 


Lucre  asks  Usury : 


80 


"Why  earnest  thou  into  England 
Seeing  Venice  is  a  city 
Where  usury  by  Lucre  may  live  in  great  glory? 

and  Usury  answers : 

"I  have  often  heard  your  good  grandmother  tell 
that  England  was  such  a  place  for  Lucre 
As  was  not  in  Europe  and  the  whole  word  beside." 

Simony  gives  the   following  account  of  himself  :^^ 

"My   birth,   nursery,    and   bringing   up   hitherto    hath   been    in 
Rome  that  ancient  city 
At  a  banquet  some   said  Rome's   religious   wealth 
Came   from   the   princes  and  by   stealth 
But  the   friars  and   monks  with  all   the  ancient  company 
Said  that  it  first  came  in  and  is  now  upholden  by  me  Simony 


"And  sirrah  when  I  was  at  Rome  and  dwelt  in  the  Friary  *- 
They  would  talk  how  England  yearly  sent  over  a  great  mass 

of  money; 
And  that  this  little  island  was  more  worth  to  the  Pope 
Than  .3  byger  realms  which  had  a  great  deal  more  scope 
For  here  were  smoke-pence,   Peter  pence,  and  Paul-pence  to 

be  paid 

The  merchant  as  usual,  is  representd  as  greedy:®^ 
"Me  will  tie  and  forswear  myself  for  a  quarter  so  much  as  my  hat." 

Lucre  wants  him  to  smuggle  goods  into  England.     He  is, 
however,  afraid  of  the  consequence.     He  says  :^* 

"I  tink  some  skall  knave  will  put  a  bill  in  Parliament 
For  dat  such  a  tings  shall  not  be  brought  here." 


93 

But  Lucre  insists  that  he  knows  tricks  by  which  he  can  out- 
wit the  customs  ofificials  :''■' 

" by   stealth    bring   over   a    great   store 


And  sa\'  it  was  in  the  realm  long  tyme  before 
And  do  but  give  the  searcher  an  odd  bribe  in  his  hand 
I  warrant  you  he  will  let  you  scape  roundly  with 
such   things   in   and   out   the   land," 

We  have  another  instance  of  class  satire  when  the  lawyer  ex- 
claims r^** 

"Tush,  sir   I  can  make  black  white  and  white  black  again 
Tut  he  that  will  be  a  lawyer  must  have  a  thousand  ways  to  feign 
Why,  sir  what  shall  let  us  to  wrest  and  turn  the  law  as  we  list 
Seeing  we  have  them  printed  in  the  palms  of  our  fist : 

Sincerity  after  trying  to  get  a  benefice  without  success,  re- 
grets having  studied  divinity  f^ 

" Divines  that  preach  the  word  of  God  sincerely  and  truly, 


Are   in   these   days   little  or  nothing  set  by. 

There  never  was  more  preaching  and  less  following,  the  people 

live  so  amiss 
But  what  is  he  that  may  not  on  the  Sabbath  day  attend  God's 

word  to  hear 
But  he   will   rather   run   to  Iiovvls,   set   at   the   ale-house   than 

one  hour  afford. 
Telling   a   tale   of   Robin   Hood,   sitting   at   cards,   playing  at 

skittles   or   some   other  .vain   thing." 

He  tells  Dissimulation  :^* 
"Thou  art  akin  to  the  lawyer,  thou   wilt  do  nothing  without  a  fee." 

and  continues  :®^ 

"Flatterers    now-a-days    live    gentleman-like 
And  with  prating  get  praise." 

There  is  a  reference  which  shows  that  rents  were  high  and 
consequently  the  houses,  especially  in  .foreign  districts,  v^rere 
overcrowded:     The  merchant  says  strangers  are  content :^'^ 

"To  dwell  in  a  little  room  and  pay  much  rent 
For  you  know  da  Frenchmans  and  Flemings  in  dis  country  be  many 
So  dat  thev  make  shift  to  dwell  ten  houses  in  one  verv  gladlv. 


94 

Conscience  bewails  the  hypocisy  seen  in  the  inns,  breweries, 
tanneries,  bakeries,  chandler-shops  etc."^  Fraud  walks  about  the 
streets  in  a  citizen's  gown.  Usury  lurks  at  the  exchange,  Simony 
walks  in  Paul's  and  confers  on  intimate  terms  with  the  clergy ."'- 

The  sequel  of  this  play  ''The  Three  Lords  and  Three  Ladies 
of  London"  contains  little  satire.  Dissiinulation  appears  again 
and  tells  us  how  he  shifts  about  in  three  sundry  shapes  i'-*^  some- 
times as  a  friar,  for  they  can  dissemble ;  sometimes  as  a  woman, 
for  they  do  little  else ;  and  sometimes  as  a  saint  and  a  devil — 
and  so  is  a  woman.  Sometimes  he  steals  into  Leaderhall  and 
sometimes  into  Westminster  Hall.  His  accomplice,  Fraud,  has 
been  entertained  by  artificers  and  ill-conscienced  lawyers.''* 

Simplicity  announces  that  there  '11  be  no  more  fraud ;  and 
consequently  he'll  be  much  missed  in  the  trades.  The  tailors  will 
miss  him  in  cutting  out  garments,  the  tanners  in  making  leather, 
the  tapsters  in  filling  pots,  and  the  very  oyster  man  in  mingling 
their  oysters  at  Billingsgate."^ 

In  great  fear  of  arrest  Fraud  proposes  to  Usury  and  Simony 
that  they  go  to  sea  to  join  with  the  Spaniards  :"® 

"We  may  either  go  with  them  and  live  in  Spain  where  we  and  such 
good   fellows  are  tolerated  and  used  or  come  slyly  again  hither." 

Simony  says  that  he  is  hated  in  Scotland  and  the  Low 
Countries.  He  gives  the  nationality  of  the  dififerent  vices  to- 
gether with  his  own. 

"I  Simony  am  a  Roman  ;  Dissimulation,  a  mongrel,  half  an  Italian, 
half  a  Dutchman  ;  Fraud  is  too — half  French  and  half  Scotch  and  thy 
parents  were  both  Jews  though  thou  went  born  in  London  and  here. 
Usury  thou  art  cried  out  against  by  the  preachers.  Join  with  us  to 
better  thy  slate,  for  in  Spain  preaching  toucheth  us  not.""" 

The  Spaniard  in  the  play  is  made  to  say  :^^ 

"What's   England  to   the   power  of   Spain 
A  molehill  to  be  placed  where  it  pleaseth  them." 

In  the  "Contention  between  Liberality  and  Prodigality"  there 
is  a  satire  on  high  prices  and  poor  food  at  times,""  on  the  vanity 
of  women^""  and  the  generalized  lament  on  the  times.  Liberality 
says  :■""' 

"So  wonts  the  world  to  pamper  those  that  nought  deserve 
Where   such   as   merit   best,   without    relief   dt)   starve." 


95 

Virtue  concludes  with  i^"- 

*You   see  but   very   few   that   make   of  virtue  any   price 
You  see  all  sorts  with  hungry  wills  run  headlong  into  vice. 

These  EHzabethan  MoraHties  still  retain  the  dull,  generalized 
lament  so  common  in  their  predecessors,  such  as  the  common- 
place assertion  that  children  were  ill-reared ;  good  men  scarce ; 
and  all  minkind  deaf  to  advice.  But  it  is  not  nearly  so  prominent 
as  in  the  early  days.  The  reader  gets  the  idea — the  moral  lesson 
— without  being  told  in  so  many  words  that  "worse  was  it  never" 
or  if  he  is  told,  he  forgets  the  statement  in  the  specific  action 
which  follows.  "Nice  Wanton,"  for  instance,  has  the  grumbling 
neighbor  Eulalia  complain  of  the  poor  training  that  children 
receive  from  their  parents.  This  complaint,  however,  is  sub- 
ordinate and  auxiliary  to  the  main  action :  we  are  likely  to  for- 
get it  in  following  the  main  action — the  characters  Dalila  and  Is- 
mael  through  the  various  steps  in  their  downfall.  Again  in  this 
play  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  have  a  specific  character,  a  baily 
so  eager  to  accept  a  bribe  that  he  ventures  to  approach  the  judge 
though  without  success.  Contrast  this  action  with  the  statement 
in  the  fifteenth  century  Morality,  "Wisdom":  "Wo  will  have 
law  must  have  monye."  This  comes  from  the  mouth  of  an 
abstraction,  "Mynde".  And  yet  we  cannot  say  that  "Wisdom" 
is  entirely  general.  "Perjury"  takes  a  specific  jury  that  of  Hol- 
born  which  seems  to  have  been  notorious  for  injustice  and  holds 
it  up  to  scorn.  Even  in  the  old  miracle  cycles,  for  instance,  the 
Ludus  Coventriae,  the  high  priest  is  represented  as  advising  the 
bribery  of  the  soldiers  to  prevent  their  spreading  the  news  of  the 
Resurrection. 

The  point  of  difference  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  the  purpose  of 
the  authors.  The  authors  of  Elizabethan  moralities  were  growing 
away  from  the  old  didactic  purpose.  At  any  rate  they  did  not  so 
directly  set  forth  their  didacticism.  They  gave  their  crude  au- 
diences materials ;  from  which  one  could  draw  the  moral  for  him- 
self with  perhaps  just  a  suggestion  of  a  moral  as  a  preparation  for 
the  action.  Or  if  more  moralizing  was  present  than  I  have  indi- 
cated, it  simply  serves  to  show  the  tendency  of  authors  to  follow 
old  forms  and  old  methods  rathen  than  to  attempt  .new  ones. 

The  Scotch  play  "Ane  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaitis"  by  Sir 
David   T.vndsav.   though   classified    with    Elizabethan    Moralities 


96 

should  be  considered  by  itself.  It  reflects  conditions  very  similar 
to  those  in  England.  It  is  unsparing  in  its  criticism  of  classes 
and  the  clergy.  The  play  is  started  with  a  bit  of  woman  satire 
w^hen  Diligence  as  prologue  requsts  silence  :^ 

"Let   everie   man   keip  weill  ane-  toung 
And  everie  woman  tway." 

The  ecclesiastical  satire  begins  with  a  speech  by  Wanton- 
ness :- 

"First,  at  the  Romane  Kirk  will  ye  begin, — 
Quwhilk  is  the  lemand  lamp  of  lechery 
Quhair  Cardinals  and  Bischops  generally 
To  luif  Ladies  thay  think  ane  pleasant  sport 
And  out  of  Rome  hes  baneist  Chastity, 
Quha  with  our   Prelats  can  get  na  resort. 

Solace  supports  his  statement  :^ 

"For   all    the    Prelats   of    this    nation 
For  the  maist  part 

Thay  think  na  schame  to  haue  ane  huir  ' 

And  sum  hes  thrie  vnder  thair  cuir. 


Speir  at  the  Monks  of  Bamirrinoch, 
Gif  lecherie  be  sin."  * 

The  prioress  is  also  implicated ;  and  even  the  court  of  Rome 
is  said  to  be  given  up  to  Sensuality,  for  the  latter  boasts  :^ 

"That  few  or  nane  refuses  me,  at  all 
Paipis,  patriarks,  or  Prelats  venerabill, 
Common   pepill,  and   Princes  temporall 
Ar  subiect,  all,  to  me,  Dame  Sensuall 

Gude  Counsall  critizes  the  times  :^ 

"For    1    have   maid   my    residence 
With  hie  Princes  of  greit  puissance 
In    England,   Italic,   and    France, 
And  monie  other  land 
Bot   out  of   Scotland — wa !   alace ! 
I  haif  bene  fleimit  lang  tymc  space: 

There  is  class  satire  when  the  character  Dissait  gives  his 
dwelling  place  as  "Amang  the  merchands" ;  when  Flatterie  pro- 
poses to  disguise  himself  as  a  clerk  "new  cum  out  of  France."^ 


97 

He  incidentally  voices  satire  on  the  friars  when  he  discusses  the 
possibility  of  using  the  dress  of  a  friar:* 

"Perchance    He  cum    (till)    that   honour 
To   be    the   Kings   confessour 
Pure  Freirs  are   free  at   any   feast. 
And  marchellit,  ay,  amang  the  best, 
Als,  God  to  them  hes  lent  sic  graces, 
That   Bischops   puts   them   in   thair  places, 
Outthrow  their  Dioceis  to  preiche : 
Bot  f  erlie  nocht,  howbeit  thay  fleich ; 
For,  schaw  thay  all  the  veritie, 
Thaill  want  the  Bischops  charitie. 
And  thocht  the  corne  war  never  sa  skant, 
The  gudewyfis  will  not  let  Freirs  want : 
For  quhy  thay  ar  thair  confessours, 
Thair  heauinlie  prudent  counsalours." 

Flatterie  is  versed  in  palmistry,  an  art  which  he  learned  in 
Italy.^  He  is  later  much  alarmed  at  the  appearance  of  \^eritie  in 
the  land  and  advises  Spiritualitie  against  her:^" 

"Dame   Veritie   hes   lychtit,   now   of   lait 
And  in  hir  hand  beirand  the   Newtestament. 
Be  scho  ressauit,  but  doubt  wee  are  bot  schent : 
Let  hir  nocht  ludge  thairfoir,  into  this  Land. 

The  abbott  agrees  with  him  :^^ 

"For  with   the  King  gif   Veritie  be  knawin. 
Of  our  greit  gloir  wee   will   degradit  be. 
And  all  our  secreits  to  the  commons  schawin." 

and  the  parson  urges  :^- 

"■ go    distroy   all   thir    Lutherians. 

In  special!,  yon  ladie  Veritie. 

They  go,  therefore,  to  Vertitie.  and  Flattrie  acts  as  spokes- 
man :^^ 

"Quhat  buik  is  that,  harlot  into  thy  hand? 
Out!  walloway  I  this  is  the  New  Testament 
In  Englisch  toung,  and  printit  in  England  I 
Herisie!   herisic !   fire!   firel   incontinent. 

Chastity  is  banished  by  Prioresses,  nuns,  spirituality,  and 
temporarlity  and  is  chased  off  by  the  wives  of  the  carping  tailor 


98 

and  the  cobbler.  These  two  types  give  some  satire  on  woman. 
The  tailor  congratulates  the  priests  on  their  celibacy  :'* 

"Now  wcils  vow  Proists,  now  weils  yow  all  your  lifes. 
That  ar  noclit  wcddit  with   sic  wickit  wyfes." 

To  return  to  Chastity,  we  find  iier  thrown  into  the  stocks  just 
as  Pity  was  in  "Hickscorner".  Her  lamentation  is  that  since  the 
Pope  has  become  a  king.  Ladie  Sensualitie"  rules  the  country .^'^ 

The  entrance  of  Correction's  servant  causes  the  vices  to 
think  of  flight.  Flattrie  propose  hiding  in  some  cloister:  Dis- 
sait  with  the  merchants ;  Falset  among  the  craftsmen  i^"  and  Sen- 
sualite,^^  among  the  prelates  at  Rome. 

The  interlude  of  the  Pauper  contains  satire  on  the  law,  on 
heriot,  on  mortuary  tax  and  on  the  clergy.  The  pauper  says  of 
the  Edinburgh  courts  :^* 

"I   socht   law   thair  this   monie   deir   day: 
"Bot    I    culd    get    nane    at    Sessioun    nor    Seinze 

Then  he  relates  how  he  has  been  stripped  of  his  property  by 
the  death  tax  and  how  with  his  "ane  Inglis  grot"  he  intends  to  go 
to  law.     Diligence  laughs  at  his  simplicity  :^^ 

"Thou  art  the  daftest  fuill  that  ever  I  saw 
Trows  thou,  man,  be  the  law  to  get  remeid 
Of  men  of  Kirk?     Na,  nocht  tell  thou  be  deid." 

and  gives  him  some  advice  when  he  asks  by  what  law  a  priest 
can  rob  a  poor  man  of  his  three  cows,  and  by  what  law  a  man 
of  the  church  can  be  immoral  and  go  unpunished.-*' 

"Hald  thy  toung,   man  !      It   seems  that   thou   war   mangit 
Speik   thou   of    Preists,   l)ut   doubt   thou   will   be   hangit." 

The  pardoner  expresses  his  hatred  of  the  Reformation : 

"I   giue   to   the   deuill,   with   gude   intent. 
This    vnsell    wickit    New-testament. 
With   them  that  it  translaitit. 
Sen  layik  men  knew  the  veritic. 
Pardoners  get  no  charitie. 
Without  that  thay  debait  it 
Amang  the  wives,   with   wunks  and  wyles, 


"Of  all  credence  now    I    am   quytc 
For  ilk  man  holds  me  at  dispyte. 


99 

That   reids  the   New-testiment. 

Duill    fell    the    braine    that    her    it    wrocht ! 

Sa  fall  them  that  the  Bulk  hame  brocht ! 

Als,  I  pray  to  the  Rude, 

That  Marten  Luther,  that  fals  loun 

Black   Bullinger,  and   Melancthoun 

Had  bene  smorde  in   their  cude." 

Johne  The  Common-weill  complains  to  Rex  Hnmanitas  that 
the  common  weal  is  neglected  and  explains  how  :-^ 

"As   far  our   reverent    fathers   of    Spiritualitie, 
Thay  ar   led   by   Couetice   and   cairles    Sensualitie, 
And,   as  ye   se,   Temporalitie   hes   neid   of   correctioun, 
Quhilk  hes,  lang  tyme  bene  led   be  publick  oppressioun. 


Loe !  heir  is  Falset  and  Dissait,  weill  I  ken,** 
Leiders   of   the   merchants   and   sillie   craftsmen. 
Quhat    mervell    thocht    the    thrie    estaits    backwart    gang, 
Quhen   sic  an   vyle  cnmpanie  dwels  them   amang." 

The  first  Serjeant  who  is  instructed  by  Correction  to  help 
put  the  vices  in  the  stocks,  says  :-^ 

"Thair   is   nocht.    in    all    this    toun, — 
Bot  I  wald  nocht  this  taill  was  tald, — 
Bot  I  wald  hang  him   for  his  goun, 
Quhidder  that   it   was   Laird   or  laid." 

Spiritualitie,  when  he  sees  Sensuality  and  Covetousness  led 
off,  vows  -.-^ 

"I  mak  ane  vow  to  God,  I   sail  complaine 
Unto    the    Paip    how   ye   do    me    iniuris." 

Gude  Counsall  takes  the  part  of  the  commons  :^^ 

"Thir   pure   commons,    daylie,    as    we    may   se, 
Declynis  doun  till   extreme  povertie ; 
For  sum  ar  hichtit  sa  into  thair  mail!, 
Thair   winning   will   nocht   find   them   water-kaill. 
How  Prelats  heichts  thair  teinda,  it  is  well  knawin. 
That  husband-men   may   not   weill   hald  thair  awin. 
And  now  begins  a  plague  amang  them,  new. 
That   gentill    men   thair   steadings   taks   in    few : 
Thus  man  thay  pay  great  ferme,  or  lay  thair  steid." 

John  the  Common-Weill  begs  Correction  to  begin  at  the  bor- 
der with  the  thieves :-® 


"I'^or  how   can   we   fend   vs   aj^ains    Ini>lan(l, 
Qulien   we  can  iiocht,  within  our  native  Land, 
Destroy   our  awin   Scots   common   trator  theilis 
Qnha    to   leill   hiborers   daylie   dois    mischiefis? 

and  then  punish  tlie  idle-beggars,  fiddlers,  pardoners,  jugglers, 
jesters,  gamblers,  and  great  fat  "Freiris."  He  insists  that  the 
courts  be  reformed,  too.  for.  as  it  is.  petty  thieves  are  hanged:'"'* 

"Bot  he  tliat  all  the  warld  hes  wrangit, — 
Ane   cruell   tyrane,   ane   Strang   transgressiour. 
Ane  common,  publick.   plaine  oppressour, — • 
By  buds   may   he  obteine   fauours 
Of  Tresurers  and  compositours  : 
Thocht  he  serue  greit   punitioun. 
Gets  easie  compositioun. 
And  throch   laws   consistoriall. 
Prolixt,   corrup.   and    perpetuall, 
The  common   peopill   ar  put   sa   under 
Thocht  thay  be  puir  it  is  na  wonder." 

He  complains  against  the  vicar  :^° 

"The   pyre   Cottar  being   lyke   to   die 
Haifand  young   infants,   twa  or  thrie, 
And  hes  two  ky,  but  ony  ma ; 
The  Vicker  most  haif  ane  of  thay 
With   the   gray   frugge   that   civers    the   bed, 
Howbeit  the  wyfe  be  purely  cled, 
And  gif  the  wyfe  die  on  the  morne, 
Thocht   all   the  bairns   sould   be   forlorne, 
The  other  kow  he  cleiks  away. 
With  the  pure  cot  of  raploch  gray. 
Wald   God   this  custome  war  put   doun, 
Quhilk  never  was  foundit  be  reassoun : 

Against  the  parson  he  has  :^^ 

"Oure  Persone,  heir,  he  takis  na  vther  pyne 
But  ti  ressaue  his  teinds,  and  spend  them  syne ; 
Howbeit  he  be  obleist,  be  gude  ressoun. 
To  preich  the  Evangell  to  his  parochoun. 
Howbeit  thay  suld  want  preiching  sevintin  yeir, 
Our  Persoun  will  not  want  ane  scheif  of  beir, 

The  Pauper  also  has  a  word  against  bishops  :''- 

"Our  bishops   with   thair  lustie   rokats  quhyte 
Thay   flow  in   riches,   royallie,  and  delyte. 


lOI 

Lyke  Paradice  bene  thair  palices  and  places,  " 

And  wants  na  pleasour  of  the  fairest  faces. 

Als,  thir  Prelates  hes  great  prerogatyves ; 

For  quhy  thay  may  depairt,  ay,  with  thair  wyues, 

Without  ony  correctioun  or  dammage, 

Syne,  tak  ane  vther  wantoner,  but  marriage." 

John  the  Common-Weill  addresses  the  lords:'' 

"Tak  tent,  now,  how  the  land  is  clein  denudit 
Of  gould  and   silver,  quhik   daylie  gais  to  Rome 
For  buds,  mair  then  the  rest  of  Christen  dome." 

The  merchant  support  John's  assertion  and  begs  for  relief. 
Gude  Counsall  also  puts  in  a  plea  against  abuses  and  pluralities  :^* 

"It   is   schort   tyme   sen   ony   benefice 
Was   sped  in  Rome,   except  greit   Bischopries; 
Bot,  now,   for  ane  vnworthie  Vickarage 
Ane  Priest  will  rin  to  Rome,  in  Pilgrimage 
Ane  cavell  quhilk  was  never  at  the  scule 
Will   rin  to   Rome,   and  keip   ane   Bischops   mule 
And  syne,  cum  hame,  with  mony  colorit  crack, 
With  ane  buirden  of  benefices  on  his  back; 
Quhilk  bene  against  the  law,  ane  man  alane 
For  till  posses  ma  benefices  nor  ane. 
Thir  greit  commends,  I  say,  withoutin  faill, 
Sould  nocht  be  given  bot  to  the  blude  Royall. 
So  I  conclude,  my  Lords,  and  sayis  for  me. 
Ye  sould  annul  all  this  pluralitie  : 

In  the  general  discussion  at  the  Parliament  of  the  Thrie 
Estaitis,  it  is  decided  that  priests  should  have  but  one  benefice, 
that  bishops  should  preach ;  and  that  the  clergy  should  be  quali- 
fied for  their  work  and  worthy  to  perform  it.  Veritie  says  that 
at  present  the  clergy  are  not  worthy  :^^ 

"My   prudent    Lords,    I    say   that    pure   craftsmen 
Abufe  sum   Prelats  ar  mair  for  to  commend. 
Gar  exame  them,  and  sa  ye  sail  sune  ken. 
How  thay  in  vertew  Bischops  dois  transcend." 

Gude  Counsall  backs  up  this  statement:'® 

"Sowtars  and  tailyeours  thay  ar   for  mair  expert 
In  thair  pure  craft,  and  in  thair  handle  art, 
Nor  ar  our  Prelatis  in  thair  vocatioun." 


I02 

Spiritualitie  when  forced  to  give  an  account  of  himself  to 
Correctioun,  confesses  to  covetousness,  luxury,  and  immorahty. 
He  does  part  of  his  work  by  proxy — having  a  friar  to  preach  in 
liis  place.-"  In  turn,  the  abbot,  abbas,  parson,  and  prioress  make 
similar  confessions.'*^  When  later,  they  "spuilze"  the  Prioress, 
according  to  stage  directions,  "scho  sail  haue  ane  kirtill  of  silk 
vnder  hir  habite,''"  On  being  exposed.  Spiritualitie  blames  the 
friars  for  his  ruin ;  the  abbot  curses  the  Reformation ;  and  the 
parson  decides  to  go  to  France,  and  become  a  soldier.*" 

According  to  the  acts  of  Parliament,  noblemen  are  not  to 
connive  at  thieves ;  nuns  are  to  be  a  class  of  the  past ;  benefices 
are  to  be  bestowed  on  ecclesiastics ;  bishops  are  not  to  ordain 
ignorant  men  as  priests ;  death  presents  are  not  be  exacted ;  no 
man  is  to  hold  a  plurality ;  and  no  baron,  to  exact  heriot.*^ 

Flattrie  who  escapes  the  fate  of  his  accomplices,  Common 
Thift,  Dissait,  and  Falset  exults  over  having  escaped  the  hang- 
man :*~ 

"Becaus   I  servit,  —  be  Alhallows  ! 

Till  haue  bene   marchellit   amang  my   fellows, 

And  heich  aboue  them  hangit, 

I  maid  far  ma  falts  nor  my  maits  ; 

I   begylde  all  the  thrie  estaitis 
With  my  hypocrisie. 

Quhen  I  had  on  my  freirs  hude 

All  men  beleifit  that   I   was  gude, 
Now  judge  ye  if  I  be. 

Tak  me  an  rackles  rubyatour, 

Ane  theif,  ane  tyrane  or  ane  traitour, 
Of   everie   vyce   the   plant; 

Gif  him  the  habite  of  ane  freir, 

The  wyfis  will  trow,  withoutin  weir 

He  be  ane  verie  Saint 

I  knaw  that  cowle  and  skaplarie 

Genners   mair   hait   nor   charitie, 

Thocht  thay  be  blak  or  blew, 

Quhat  halines  is  thair   within 

Ane  wolfe  cled  in  ane  wedders  skin?" 


CHAPTER  VI. 


INTERLUDES   OR   FARCES. 

There  are  some  plays  which  do  not  appear  in  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  "Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature"  which 
really  belong  to  the  crude  early  attempts  at  drama.  Such  are  the 
plays  which  E.  K.  Chambers  classifies  as  farces.  First  under 
farces  of  mediaeval  type  appear  "The  Pardoner  and  the  Friar", 
"The  Four  P's,"  "The  Weather,"  "Johan,  Tyb,  and  Syr  John," 
and  perhaps  we  should  add  that  play  of  domestic  life,  "Tom  Tyler 
and  his  Wife,"  Then  there  are  farces  on  classical  models — for  in- 
stance, "Gammer  gurton's  Needle,"  "Ralph  Roister  Doister,'  and 
^'Jack  Juggler.  In  addition  to  farces,  Mr.  Chambers  has  a  di- 
vision of  translations.  From  the  Spanish  he  lists  "Calisto  and 
Meliboea"  ;^  from  the  Neo-Latin,  "Thersites"  and  "The  Diso- 
bedient Child".  Under  pseudo-interlude  there  is  that  interminable 
disputation  by  John  Heywood  called  "Love"  and  the  contro- 
versial dialogue,  "Robin  Conscience." 

But  neither  the  classification  of  the  "Cambridge  History 
of  English  Literature"  nor  that  of  E.  K.  Chambers,  nor  a  com- 
bination of  the  two  succeeds  in  including  all  our  early  plays  not 
belonging  to  the  regular  drama.  In  the  Malone  Society  Reprints 
we  find  "Love  feigned  and  Unfeigned,"  "Johan  the  Evangelist," 
''Temperance  and  Humility,"  "The  Cruell  Debtter,"  "The  Prodi- 
gal Son" — all  moral  plays.  In  the  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch  there 
is  a  play,  "The  Cobbler's  Prophecy"  which  still  retains  traces  of 
the  morality  plays.  There  also  three  moral  tragedies  which 
should  be  considered — "Appius  and  Virginia,"  "Cambyses,"  and 
"Horestes."    These,  however  are  not  satirical. 

Passing  to  a  consideration  of  the  satire  in  these  plays  we 
have  in  the  fragmentary  morality,  "Love  Feigned  and  Unfeigned" 
some  advice  from  Falshod  on  getting  rich  :^ 

"Wherefore  my  masters  yf  in  riches  and  wealthe 
Ye  would  abound  ye  must  practise  deceipt  and  stealth 
fere  nothinge  to  sweare  by  his  nales  woundth  or  blode 
So  thow  maj'  have  thy  purpose  and  increase  thy  good 

103 


I04 

Thoughe  some  man  should  say  that  of  wcalthe  thowe  hast  plentye 
thow  must  alhvays   fayne  that  thy  purse  ys  but  cmptye 
I  praye  ye  what  ma  goeth  throwe  the  wode 
but  he  that  can  play  two  faces  in  one  hode. 

He  boasts  of  his  own  power:- 

"I  reigne  as  an  Imperiall  magystrate  at  Rome 
I  am   honored  in  all  nations  whersoe  I  come 
He   that    hath   not  practyse   in   his  conversation 
Ys  tearmed  an  asse  and  rude  in  comunicatyon." 

Love  Feigned  says  :^ 

"Yea  and  youe  must  love  fayn^dlie  your  Christia  brother 
tell   hime  one  tale  and  thinke   in   herte  one  other 


Marke  me  nowe  adayes  yf  there  be  an  heire  of  lands 
howe  they  practyse  by  falshod  to  have  it  out  of  hir  hands 
Well  yf  you  should  studye   familiarite  to  please 
Where  youe  be  a  gentle  ma  should  not  be  worth  two  p — 
Oh  they  will  cap  hime  and  sugred  words  render 
they  will  seme  as  that  much  your  selfe  they  do  tender 
All  is  to  have  your  lands   in   their  possession 
Which,  yf  the  may  attayne  by  any  condicion 
then  may  ye  go  alone  wyth  a  flea  in  youre  eare 
Yender  goeth  the  ayre  of  lyn  ye  may  se  by  his  geare 
let  him  packe  as  a  begger  vnto  the  beggers  shoole 
Such  is  the  end  of  everye  foole." 

In  "Johan  the  Evangelist"  Evil  Counsell  says  :^ 

"1    have   sought  England  thorowe   and  thorowe 
Vyllage,  towne,  cytie  and  borowe 
Mith   many  a   thousande  bequeyntyd   I   am 
As  yll  tongued  churles  and  many  a  prowde  gentyll  man 
That  shrewdly  riundeth  many  a  pystell 
Whan  they  in  yonge  wyves  eeres  dithe  whystell 
Of  maters  partaynyng  to  Venus  Actes 
With   fair  flateryng  wordes   and  prety  knackes 


In   Cornewall   I   have   ben   and   in   Kent 
Westmynster.  Saynt  Katheryns  and  in  unthryfts  rent 


In   England  shall  nothing  me  let.  * 

Idlenesse  gives  an  account  of  Sensuality  his  brother :" 

"Syr  I  lefte  hym  on  the  playne  of  Salysbyre 
Ae    told   me   that   he    wolde   Ivsfte 


I05 

Some   good    felowe   from   his   thryfte 
And  as  I  trowe  somewhat  he  wyll  gette. 

In  the  next  play  "Temperance  and  Humility"  Disobedience 
insolently  remark  to  the  two  characters  who  give  the  play  its 
name  :* 

"What  make  ye  in  this  countre 

Youre  worke  is  all  in  vanyte 

Ye  can  not  prevayle 

A)udacyte  and  dysobedience 

W)ith  Adversytees  presence 

)US  wyll  we  vayle 

)  court  in  constry  and  in  many  a  couent 

In) every  order  we  dwell  present 

Oduely  we  assayle 

So  many  foloweth  now  our  intent 

And  I  sholde  tell  all  I  sholde  be  shent 

For  both  spriall  and  teporall 
foloweth  our  ca( 

And  after  vs  wyll  do. 

There  is  a  trifling  bit  of  satire  in  the  fragment  of  the  "Cruel! 
Debtter".     Flateri  says  -J 

"The  higher  that  the  court  is  &  the  more  iniquytie 
More  flatery  is  not   in  the  worlde  reygnynge 
Then   is   in   the  courte  of   any  noble  kynge."' 

On  Symulation  he  says  :* 

"In  the  worlde  is  not  so  false  a  knave  as  hee 
For   by   hym   all   states   deceyved   bee 
In   Byshops   and  pastors   he   is   humylitie 
And  yet  must  be  full  of  pryde  and  crudelytie 
In  all  the  Clergy  he  semeth  to  be  holynes 
Whan  in  them  is  a  multytude  of  wyckednes, 
In  magystrates  he  semeth  to  be  Offabilitie 
Yet  theare  lurketh  dysdayne  and  austerytie 
In  the  comons  he  semeth  to  be  neyghbourlynes 
Yet  is  theare  enuye,  hate,  and  coueytousness. 

There  is  nothing  in  "The  Prodigal  Son"  of  a  satirical  nature 
unless  it  is  a  reference  to  shrewish  wives :® 

"O  woo  is  to  that  man  all  dayes  of  his  lyfe 
That  hath  a  shrewde  queane  to  his  wyfe." 


io6 

We  may  proceed  now  to  the  "Cobbler's  Prophecy",  "Raph''' 
the  cobbler  has  a  dream  which  is  a  satire  on  the  times. ^"^ 

"Below  me  thought,  there  were  false  knaves! 
Walking   like    honest   men    verie   craftely 
.Ajid  few  or  none  could  be  plainly  secne 
to  thrive  in   the  world  by  honcstie 


Men,   masters    and    maids 
Yea,  and  wives  too  and  all  are  too  too  bad. 


But  O.  the  Baker  how  he  plaid  false  with  the  baliance, 

And  ran  away   from  the  takers  tallants. 

The  Bruer  was  as  bad,  the  Butcher  as  ill 

For  its  their  tricke  to  blow  up  leane  meate  with  a  quill." 

He  warns  the  scholar  :^^ 

"Harke  ye,  mas  Scholler,  harke ! 
The  time  shall  come  not  long  before  the  dome, 
That    in   despite   of    Rome 
Latin  shall  lacke 

And  greeke  shall  beg  with  a  wallet  at  his  backe 
For  all  are  not  sober  that  goes  in  blacke. 

His  prophecy  to  the  coimtry  gentleman  is:^- 

"The  hie  hill  and  the  deepe  ditch 
Which  ye  digd  to  make  your  Selues  rich 
The  chimnies  so  many,  and  alwies  not  anie 
The  widowes  wofull  cries 
And  babes   in  streete  that  lies 
The   bitter   sweate   and    paine 
That  tenants  poore  sustaine 
Will  turn  to  your  bane." 

This  is  followed  by  threats  of  hell  and  the  question  :^' 

"Then   where   will   be   the   schollers   allegories 
Where  the  Lawier  with  his  dilatories 
Where  the  Courtier  with  his  braverie 
And  the  money  monging  mate  with  all  his  knaverie 


Clio  says  ■}* 


"Yes  divers  Princes  make  good  lawes, 
But   most  men  overslip  them 
And  divers  dying  give  good  gifts 
But  their  executors  nip  them." 


I07 

Charon  complains  that  he  is  worked  to  death  just  as  the 
porter  of  hell  does  in  the  Towneley  "Juditium"  :^^ 

"Why,  Popes  and  Prelates,  Princes  and  Judges  more  than  I  number  can. 
But  the  covetous  misers,  they  fret  me  to  the  gall ; 
For  they  way  the  divel  and  all. 

Raph  interrupts  -.^^ 

"Mas,  and  may  well  be,  for  theres  little  money 
Stirring  on  the  earth," 

A  Gray  Friar  comes  to  Charon's  barge  and  when  questioned 
as  to  who  he  is  replies  :^^ 

"The  ghost  of  a  gray  Frier 
So  troubled  with  nunnes,  as  never  Frier  was." 

Next  comes  Codrus  the  poor  man,  He  wishes  to  know  if 
hell  can  be  any  worse  than  earth.    Charon  answers  :^^ 

"Codrus,  I  cannot  help  thee  now  and  yet  I  wish  thee  wel ; 
Theres  scarcely  roome  enough   for  rich 
So  that  no  poore  can  come  to  hell 


For  where  one  wont  to  come  to  hell 
I  telle  thee  now  comes  five  or  sixe." 

Further  there  is  a  dialogue  between  Nicenes  and  New- 
fangle  :^'' 

"For  once  a  day  for  fashion  sake  my  Lady  must  be  sicke 
No  meat  but  mutton,  or  at  most  the  pinion  of  a  chicke 
Today  hir  own  haire  best  becomes,  which  yellow  is  or  gold 
A  perriwigs  better  for  to  morrow,  blacker  to  behold ; 
Today  in  pumps  and  chevrill  gloves,  to  walke  she  wilbe  told 
Tomorrow  cufifes  and  countenance  for  feare  of  catching  cold 
Now  is  she  barefoot  to  be  seene,  straight  on  hir  muffler  goes. 
Now  is  she  hufift  up  to  the  crowne,  straight  nusled  to  the  nose." 

Th  moral  tragedies,  "Appius  and  Virginia"  and  "Horestes" 
are  not  satirical.  "Cambyses  has  a  slight  trace  of  satire.  The 
Vice  Ambidexter  says  :-'* 

"Yet  with  mine  eares  I  have  heard  some  say, — 
That  ever  I  was  married,  now  cursed  be  the  day ! 
Those  be  they  that  with  curs'd  wives  be  matched 
That  husband   for  hawks'  meat  of  them  is  up  snatched. 


io8 

Head  lirokc  with  a  bed-staff,  face  he  all  to  scratched; 


Such  were  bettor  unmarried,  nij-  masters  I   trow 
Than  all  their  life  after  to  he  matched  with  a  shrow." 

In  referring  to  the  crtielty  of  Cambyses,  he  speaks  of  Bishop 
Booner.'-^ 

"He  was  akin  to  Bishop  Bonner.   1   think  verily; 
For  both  their  delights  was  to  shed  blood, 
Hut   never  intended  to  do  any  good." 

'I'aking  u\)  now  the  mediaeval  interlude  or  farce,  we  find 
in  "The  Pardoner  and  the  Friar"--  satire  of  characterization. 
These  two  types  are  represented  as  discussing  their  importance 
to  society  and  the  value  of  prayers  and  relics.  Each  underrates 
the  other.  Both  try  to  talk  at  once  but  neither  managing  to  say 
more  than  a  sentence  at  a  time,  a  fight  ensues  to  settle  who  shall 
have  the  floor.  The  quarrel  is  extended  to  include  the  curate  and 
Neighbour  Pratt  who  come  to  prevent  the  desecration  of  the 
church.  In  the  end  the  newcomers  are  beaten  and  driven  ofif, 
leaving  the  pardoner  and  the  friar  in  possession  of  the  field. 
Plainly  the  aim  of  the  author  is  to  make  sport  of  these  two  types. 
He  is  not  serious ;  he  has  no  lesson  to  teach.  He  has  grasped 
the  idea  that  the  true  function  of  the  drama  is  to  amuse  ;hence 
he  does  not  consider  it  necessary  to  retain  the  Old  English  fair- 
ness and  make  modifications  conceriiing  certain  friars  and  cer- 
tain pardoners,  for  his  purpose  the  two  types  are  fit  subjects  for 
ridicule. 

The  author  of  the  play  just  discussed — John  Hey  wood — 
wrote  three  other  satirical  farces :  "The  Four  P.  P."  "The 
Weather,"  and  "Johan,  Tyb  and  Syr  John.  All  are  satirical  of 
classes — of  the  palmer,  the  pardoner,  the  priest,  the  duped  hus- 
band, and  the  unfaithful  wife.  Here  we  have  the  best  illus- 
tration of  early  dramatic  satire.  The  method  is  no  longer  that  of 
the  preacher  but  that  of  the  dramatist. 

In  "The  Four  P.  P."  a  palmer  and  a  pardoner  boast  of  their 
claims  to  merit  and  distinction  much  as  they  do  in  the  preceding 
play.  The  palmer  is  proud  of  the  number  of  shrines  that  he  has 
visited;  but  the  ])ardoner  contem])tuously  refers  to  them  :-^ 

"For  all  \fiur  labour  and  ghostly  intent 
\"e  will  come  home  as  wise  as  ve  went." 


I09 

and  tells  him  that  he  could  have  granted  him  remission  of  his 
sins ;  for  he  is  truly  a  pardoner.    The  palmer  retorts  : 

"Truly  a  pardoner  !     that  may  be  true 
But  a  true  pardoner  doth  not  ensue. 
Right  seldom  is  seen  or  never. 
That  truth  and  pardoners  dwell  together." 

To  this  the  pardoner  says : 

"By  the  first  part  of  this  last  tale 
It  seemeth  ye  came  of  late  from  the  ale." 

When  the  pedlar  displays  his  goods,  the  palmer  tells  him  :-* 

''we  be  like  friars ; 
We  are  but  beggars,  we  be  no  buyers." 

When  the  pardoner  makes  his  visit  to  hell  in  behalf  of  his 
friend,  Margery  Corson,  Lucifer  readily  grants  his  request  for 
her  freedom  :-^ 

"For  all  we  devils  within  this  den 
Have  more  to  do  with  two  women 
Than  with  all  the  charge  we  have  beside ; 
Wherefore,  if  thou   our   friend  will  be  tried 
Apply  thy  pardon  to  women  so. 
That  unto  us  there  come  no  mo." 

The  palmer,  however,  takes  up  the  defence  of  woman  and 
wins  the  prize  for  telling  the  greatest  lie  :-** 

"His  tale  is  all  much  perilous; 
But  part  is  much  more  marvellous 
As  where  he  said  the  devils  complain 
That  women  put  them  to  such  pain. 
Be  their  conditions  so  crooked  and  crabbed 
Forwardly  fashioned,  so  wayward  and  wrabbed 
So   far   in   division,   and   stirring   such   strife 
That  all  the  devils  be  weary  of  their  life. 
This  in  effect  he  told  for  truth. 
Whereby  much  marvel  to  me  ensueth, 
That  women  in  hell  such  shrews  can  be, 
And  here  so  gentle,  as  far  as  I  see 
Yet  have  I  seen  many  a  mile 
And  many  a  woman  in  the  while 
Not  one  good  city,  town,  or  borough 
In  Christendom  but  I  have  been  thorough 


no 

And  thus  I   would  yc  should  understand 

I  have  seen  women  tive  hundred  thousand 

And  oft  with  them  long  time  tarried. 

Yet  in  all  places  where  I  have  been 

Of  all  the  women  that  I  have  seen 

I  never  saw  nor  knew  in  my  conscience 

Any  one  woman  out  of  patience." 

Heywood's  "Weather"  is  purely  farcial ;  the  different  classes 
are  represetited  as  anxious  to  secure  weather  that  will  promote 
business.  Each  of  course  is  selfish  in  its  interests.  The  wea- 
ther that  will  dry  the  clothes  of  the  laundress  will  spoil  the  com- 
plexion of  the  beauty.  The  coarse  play  "Johan,  Tyb  and  Syr 
John"  satirizes  the  three  types — the  henpecked  husband,  the  un- 
faithful wife  and  immoral  priest.  His  other  play  "Love"  is  a 
wordy  disputation  which  can  not  be  classed  as  satirical. 

The  farces  on  Classical  models — "Jack  Juggler".  "Gammer 
Gurton's  Needle",  and  "Ralph  Roister  Doister"  were  written  with 
the  idea  of  amusement  foremost.  Diccon  in  "Gammer  Gurton", 
"Jack  Juggler"  in  the  piece  of  the  same  name  and  Matthew 
Merrygreek  in  "Roister  Doister"  remind  us  of  the  old  vice  in  the 
moral  plays.  In  their  control  of  the  plot  they  come  close  to  the 
Vice,  Haphazard  in  "Apius  and  Virginia"  and  Ambidexter  in 
"Cambyses". 

Of  these  plays  "Jack  Juggler"  seems  to  be  the  only  one  that 
is  satiric ;  and  here  the  satire  is  hidden.  The  prologue  says  that 
the  author  takes  the  grounds  of  his  comedy  from  Plautus  and 
with  a  satirical  touch  adds  :'-' 

" fi-r  higher  things  indite 

In  nn  \v:?e  he  would,  for  yet  the  time  is  so  queasy. 

That  he  that  speaketh  best  is  least  thankworthy. 

Therefore,  sith  nothing  but  trifles  may  be  had 

You  shall  hear  a  thing  that  only  shall  make  you  merry  and  glad. 

''And  such  a  trifling  matter,  as  when  it  shall  be  done, 
Ye  may  report  and  say  ye  have  heard  nothing  at  all. 
Therefore  I  tell  you  all,  before  it  be  begun 
Thrit  no  man  look  to  hear  of  matters  substantial, 
Nor  matters  of  any  gravity  either  great  or  small 
For  this  maker  showed  us  that  such  manner  things 
Do  never  well  beseem  little  boys'  handlings. 


Ill 

But  in  contrast  to  this  tone  of  innocence  we  find  in  an  un- 
assigned  part,  apparently  a  prologue  the  following  hints  of  a  hid- 
den meaning:^* 

"Somewhat  it  was,  saith  the  proverb  old 
That  the  cat  winked  when  her  eye  was  out, 
That  is  to  say  no  tale  can  be  told, 
But  that  some  English  may  be  picked  thereof  out 
If  so  to  search  the  Latin  and  ground  of  it  men  will  go  about 
As  this  trifling  interlude  that  before  you  hath  been   rehearsed. 
May  signify  some  further  meaning  if  it  be  well  rehearsed. 

"Such  is  the  fashion  of  the  world  now-a-days 
That  the  simple  innocents  are  deluded, 
And  an  hundred  thousand  divers  way 
By  subtle  and  crafty  means  shamefully  abused 
And  by  strength,  force,  and  violence  ofttimes  compelled 
To  believe  and  say  the  moon  is  made  of  a  green  cheese 
Or  els  have  great  harm,  and  percase  their  life  lese. 


"He  must  say  he  did  amiss,  though  he  never  did  offend 
He  must  ask  forgiveness,  where  he  did  no  trespass 
Or  els  be  in  trouble,  care  and  misery  without  end, 
And  be  cast  in  some  arrearage  without  any  grace 
And"  that  thing  he  saw  done  before  his  own  face 
He  must  by  compulsion  stiffly  deny 
And  for  fear  whether  he  woll  or  not  sa  tongue,  you  lie." 

Bongrace  scouts  at  the  excuse  of  Jenkin  Careaway's — 
namely,  that  a  double  has  taken  his  place  -."^ 

"Why,  thou  naughty  villain,   darest  thou  afiirm  to  me 
That  which  was  never  seen  nor  hereafter  shall  be? 
That  one  may  have  two  bodies  and  two  faces 
And  that  one  man  at  one  time  may  be  in  two  places? 

In  this  there  may  be  a  hidden  thrust  at  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiatiion.  A  reading  of  "Tom  Tyler  and  his  wife"  shows 
some  amusing  domestic  comedy.  The  poor  henpecked  Tom  after 
securing  an  advantage  over  his  wife  through  the  trick  of  his 
friend  the  tailor,  unwisely  loses  it  by  telling  her  that  his  friend 
had  given  her  the  beating  for  him.  The  poor  fellow's  Song 
is:^« 

"I  am  a  poor  Tyler  in  simple  aray 

And  get  a  poor  living  but  eight  pence  a  day 

My  wife  as  I  get  it,  doth   spend  it  away 


1  12 


And  1  cannot  lielp  it,  she  saith  ;  wot  ye  why 
For  wedding  and  hanging  is  destiny 


By  marrying  of  strife  which  I  chose  to  my  wife, 
To  leade  such  a  life  with  sorow  and  grief 
As  I  tell  you  true,  is  to  had  for  a  Jew." 

In  the  old  play  "Common  Conditions"  there  is  some  more  of 
this  crude  criticism  of  women  -.^^ 

"Proffer  them  the  thing  thei  most  desire,  they  would  it  denie 
Thei  are  so  full  of  sleightes  and  fetches  that  scarce  the  Foxc.  hee 
In  every  poicte  with  women  maie  scarce  compared  bee ; 
For  when  men  praie,  they  will  denaie ;  or  when  men  most  desire 
Then  mark  me  a  woman,  she  is  sonest  stirred  to  ire 
Their  hedds  are  fantastical!,  and  full  of  varietie  straunge 
Like  to  the  moone.  whose  operation  it  is  often  tymes  to  chaunge." 

In  "Calisto  and  Meliboea"  Sempronio  the  parasite  tries  to 
cheer  the  jilted  lover,  Calisto,  by  telling  him  that  women  are  not 
the  goddesses  that  they  seem  :^- 

"Flee  from  their  beginnings,  eschew  their  folly  : 
Thou  knowest  they  do  evil  things  many 
They  keep  no  mean,  but  rigour  of  intention: 
Be  it  fair  (or)  foul,  wilful  without  reason. 
Keep  them  never  so  close,  they  will  be  showed. 
Give  tokens  of  love  by  many  subtle  ways : 
Seeming  to  be  sheep,  and  serpently  shrewd ; 
Craft  in  them  renewing  that  never  decavs. 


it  is  a  wonder  to  see  their  dissembling. 
Their  flattering  countenance,  their  ingratitude. 
Inconstancy,  false  witness,  feigned  weeping; 
T]:e'r  vain-glory  and  how  they  can  delude 
Their  foolishness,  their  jangling  not  mew'd 
Their  lecherous  lust  and  vileness  therefore; 
Witch  crafts  and  charms  to  make  men  to  them  lore 
Their  embalming  and  their   unshamef  acedness ; 
Their  bawdry,  their  subtlety,  and   fresh  attirin-?; 
What  trimming,  what  painting  to  make  fairness ! 
Their  false  intents  and  flickering  smiling! 
Therefore  lo !  it  is  an  old  saying 
That  women  be  the  devil's  net,  and  head  of  sin. 
And  man's  misery  in  Paradise  did  begin." 

The  next  play  "Thersites"  may  be  taken  as  a  satire  upon 
boasters,  but  it  :.-  probably  only  realistic  and  comic  in  intent. 


113 

This  is  true  to  a  less  extent  in  the  case  of  "The  Disobedient 
Child."  The  son  is  in  character ;  he  complains  of  school-life  :^^ 

"Yet  like  to  the  school  none  under  the  sun 
Bringeth  to  children  so  much  heaviness. 


"For  as  the  bruit  goeth  by  many  a  one, 
Their  tender  bodies  both  night  and  day 
Are  whipped  and  scourged,  and  beat  like  a  stone 
That   from  top  to  toe  the  skin   is  away. 
So  long  as  my  wits  shall  be  mine  own 
The  schoolhouse  for  me  shall  stand  alone." 

The  father  regrets  his  inability  to  control  his  child  :^* 

"Science  and  learning  is  so  little  regarded. 
That  none  of  us  doth  muse  or  study 
To  see  our  children  well  taught  and  instructed. 
We  deck  them,  we  trim  them   with  gorgeous  array. 
We  pamper  and  feed  them,  and  keep  them  so  gay 
That  in  the  end  of  all  this  they  be  our  foes." 

The  priest,  too,  has  a  complaint;  the  clerk  has  gone  to  the 
ale-house  leaving  his  work  to  the  care  of  his  superior.^^ 

"Great  pity  it  were  that  the  church  should  be  disordered, 
Because  that  such  swillbowls  do  not  their  works. 
And  to  say  truth  in  many  a  place, 
And  other  great  towns  besides  this  same, 
The  priests  and  parishioners  be  in  like  case 
Which  to  the  churchwardens  may  be  shame. 


CHAPTER  VII 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

It  has  been  shown  that  satire  j^lays  an  important  part  in  the 
Marly  Enghsh  Drama,  especially  in  the  moralities  where  it  en- 
livens the  direct  didacticism  of  these  dull  old  plays  with  virile 
attacks  upon  the  church  and  society ;  and  thus  teaches  in  an  indi- 
rect manner  what  should  be  by  attempting  to  abolish  what  should 
not  be.  The  reformatory  idea,  however,  was  not  always  pres- 
ent. The  authors  at  times  merely  gave  expression  to  that  common 
satirical  spirit  by  virtue  of  which  men  delight  in  ridiculing  the 
follies  of  others.  And  yet  the  great  seriousness  of  the  English 
people  on  the  whole  leads  us  to  conclude  that  the  larger  part  of 
this  early  satire  was  reformatory  in  purpose. 

The  most  fertile  field  of  this  satire  lay  in  the  controversial 
drama  foreshadowing  and  centering  about  the  Reformation.  The 
three  greatest  names  are  those  of  John  Skelton,  John  Bale,  and 
Sir  David  Lyndsay.  All  three  show  the  vigor  so  characteristic  of 
the  English  and  Scotch  in  making  their  attacks  upon  religious  and 
social  evils ;  all,  though  priests,  stoop  to  coarseness  and  ob- 
scenities which  had  better  be  let  die.  The  only  point  in  citing 
them  is  that,  if  true,  they  serve  to  show  the  prevailing  cor- 
ruption of  the  church,  the  looseness  of  morals  in  general,  and 
the  inefficiency  of  the  government.  .-\nd  they  were  undoubtedly 
true  in  a  great  degree ;  the  native  fairness  of  English  satire 
leads  to  this  conclusion.  Another  fact  which  seems  to  strengthen 
this  inference — that  the  licentiousness  of  the  times  was  a  re- 
flection of  the  influence  of  the  immoral  clergy  upon  society — 
is  the  small  amount  of  satire  aimed  at  the  Protestant  reformers. 
We  have  one  play  "Respublica"  which  accuses  the  Protestant  min- 
isters of  having  brought  ruin  upon  the  Commonwealth.  In  "New 
Custom"  both  parties  Catholics  and  Protestant  are  represented. 
Each  satirizes  the  other.  The  conclusion  of  the  jilay,  however, 
shows  that  the  author  wrote  with  the  intention  of  disparaging  the 
Romish  Church.  Its  three  satirical  abstractions  represent  the 
two  faults  of  Popish  priests — Perverse  Doctrine  and  Ignorance — 

]14 


// 

and  the  cardinal  sin  of  the  Middle  Ages — Hypocrisy.  If  we 
accept  satire  as  the  weapon  of  the  persecuted,  then  the  small 
quantity  of  saitre  directed  against  the  promulgators  of  the  Ref- 
ormation indicates  where  the  corruption  lay.  Again,  if  we  be- 
lieve satirists  appear  when  society  and  its  institutions  become 
decadent  and  appear  as  spokesmen  of  the  popular  thought,  then 
we  must  conclude  that  in  this  period  which  was  to  culminate  in 
the  Reformation,  there  was  ample  material  for  satire  and  that 
there  were  a  few  who  believed  the  drama,  or  what  was  then  the 
drama,  the  most  efifective  means  of  presenting  it.  For  three 
centuries  there  had  been  a  more  or  less  scattered  attack  upon 
the  evils  and  inconsistencies  of  the  church  in  the  undramatic 
literature  of  the  time.  Now  in  the  sixteenth  century  when  afifairs 
were  approaching  a  crisis,  the  drama  became  a  potent  factor  in 
presenting  the  vexed  questions  to  the  mind  of  the  people. 

A  classification  of  the  old  English  plays  into  groups — (i) 
those  which  contain  considerable  satire.  (2)  those  which  are  only 
incidentally  satiric — shows  the  following  lists.  Under  the  first 
heading  we  should  name  the  twenty-fifth  pageant  of  the  Ludus 
Coventriae  as  containing  the  broadest  and  best  sustained  satire 
of  all  the  miracles  cycles,  addressed  as  it  is  in  an  ironical  vein  to 
the  audience  by  a  character  who  was  always  able  to  get  a  hear- 
ing— the  Devil.  \\'ith  it  should  be  mentioned  the  twenty-eighth 
Towneley  pageant  noted  for  its  social  satire.  For  the  essen- 
tially satiric  moralities  we  name  the  following  plays :  "Magnifi- 
cence." "Ane  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaitis,"  ''Respublica."  "Xew 
Custom."  "Lusty  Juventus,"  "King  John."  and  the  "Three  Laws." 
The_sa.tirical  farces  are:  "The  Four  P's,"  "Johan.  Tyb.  and  Sir 
Jhcn."  "The  \\'eather."  and  the  "Parr'oner  and  the  Friar."  l''^nder 
the  second  heading  as  representatives  of  the  miracles,  we  note  the 
various  plays  of  the  Towneley  cycle  and  the  Ludus  Coventriae 
not  included  in  the  first  division  and  also  the  Chester  plays. 
The  moralities  only  incidentally  satiric  take  in :  "The  Pride  of 
Life."  "The  Castle  of  Perseverance,"  "Mind,  Will  and  Under- 
standing." "Mankind."  "Everyman."  "Mundus  et  Infans."  "Na- 
ture." "Hickscorner."  "Youth,"  "Four  Elements."  "The  Diso- 
bedient Child."  "Nice  Wanton,"  and  perhaps  we  should  note  for 
the  farces.  "Jack  Juggler." 

All  this  satire  fits  in  admirably  with  the  didactic  subject- 
matter  and  purpose  of  the  Old  English  plays.     These  beginning 


ii6 

with  the  idea  of  teaching  the  crude,  ignorant  people  the  story  of 
the  Scriptures  continued  to  do  so  until  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth century ;  but  at  the  same  time  widening  their  scope,  they 
came  to  include  the  representation  of  religious  lessons  which  ap- 
l)ealed  more  to  the  intellect  than  did  the  narrative  of  the  miracles. 
The  same  audience  went  to  the  miracle  plays  and  the  morality 
plays,  at  least  to  the  popular  moralities.  The  one  taught  them 
the  Bible ;  the  other,  ethics.  In  both  satire  appeared  but  of 
course  with  more  prominence  in  the  moralities;  for  these  plays 
not  being  bound  so  strictly  by  convention  to  a  close  representation 
of  the  Scriptures  nor  so  much  under  the  sway  of  the  clergy  as 
the  miracles,  could  attack  evils  in  the  church  and  society  and 
still  conform  to  the  didactic  purpose  of  the  plays  even  though  they 
did  so  indirectly. 

In  the  farces  or  interludes  which  had  an  entirely  different 
purpose  from  the  two  kinds  of  religious  drama  in  that  they  gave 
up  the  old  idea  of  instruction  for  that  of  amusement,  satire  came 
in  nicely  as  one  of  the  means  of  raising  a  laugh. 

A  survey  of  this  informal  satire  shows  the  use  of  both  the 
direct  and  the  indirect  methods.  The  first  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  advice  of  the  devil  in  the  "Ludus  Coventriae" ;  in  the  Bis- 
hop's complaint  on  the  times  in  the  "Pride  of  Life";  in  x\varice's 
advice  to  Mankind  in  the  "Castle  of  Perseverance"  ;  in  the  mes- 
senger'-s  rebuke  in  the  "Four  Elements  to  authors  w4io  neglect 
their  native  English  ;  in  Pity's  complaint  in  "Hickscorner".  -Com- 
pare the  speech  of  Good  Counsel  in  "Lusty  Juventus"  with  that  of 
a  character  of  the  same  name  in  the  Scottish  play,  "':Ane  Satyre 
of  the  Thrie  Estaitis."  The  first  is  a  dull  lament  in  the  direct 
method : 

"O  where  may  a  man  find  now.  one  faithful  congregation 
That   is   not   infected   with    dissension    or   discord 
Who  useth  not  now  covetousness  and  deceit 
Who  giveth  to  the  poor  that  which   is  his  due." 

The  second,  though  still  a  lament  is  dramtic.  indirect.  Gude 
Counsall  represents  herself  as  driven  out  of  Scotland  in  a  speech 
tliat  makes  her  almost  human  : 

"Rut  out  of  Scotland  —  wa  !  alace  !  — 
I    haif    bene    fieimit    lang    tyme    space." 


117 

Of  the  two  methods,  the  indirect  is.  the  more  effective.  It 
must  have  been  exceedingly  impressive  to  see  a  Pope  in  despair  on 
the  Judgment  Day  and  hear  from  his  own  hps  his  confession 
of  worldliness  and  simony.  Such  daring  occurs  only  once  in  the 
miracles — in  the  1591  edition  of  the  "'Chester  Plays".  Here  its 
seeming  boldness  is  not  so  wonderful  after  all  if  we  consider  its 
late  occurrence  at  a  time  when  Protestantism  was  established  in 
England  and  the  Pope  no  longer  so  highly  esteemed  as  he  had 
been  in  preceding  ages ;  or  if  we  admit  that  it  may  be  onlv  the 
transfer  to  the  drama  by  literary  antiquarians  of  the  Dance  of 
Death  motive  so  common  in  mediaeval  art.  But  to  take  up  an- 
other instance  which  can  not  be  discounted,  we  revert  to  the  time 
of  the  Reformation — to  the  reign  of  King  Henry  VHI.  Here 
w^e  find  an  attack  upon  the  Pope  by  the  fiery  Bishop  Bale.  As 
in  the  Chester  play,  the  Pope  appears  on  the  stage,  but  not  to 
confess  his  sins ;  he  rather  proposes  to  indulge  in  them  to  the 
utmost.  Unlike  the  Chester  Pope  he  is  at  times  an  abstraction 
— Usurpyd  Powder ;  at  times  a  specific  Pope — for  instance.  In- 
nocent the  Third. 

After  excommunicating  King  John,  he  says  to  Dissimulation: 

"I   shall   soch   gere  avaunce 
As  wyll  be  to  us  a   pereptual    furderaunce ; 
Fyrst  eare-confessyon,  than  pardons  than  purgatory 
Sayntes  —  worchyppyng  than   sekyng  of   imagery 
Than  Laten  servyce,  with  the  cerymonye  meny 
Whereby  our  byshoppes  and  abbots  shall  get  money. 
I  wyll  make  a  law  to  burne  all  herytykes. 
And  kyngs   to  depose  -whan   they   are   sysmatykkes. 
I   wyll   allso   reyse   up  the    fower  begging   orders 

The  tone  and  spirit  of  the  satire  is  pessimistic  but  not  so 
sweepingly  pessimistic  as  to  exclude  the  natural  hopefulness  of 
the  English  and  their  desire  for  impartiality.  Often  after  a 
bitter  denunciation  of  the  clergy  which  would  seem  to  include 
the  entire  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  the  author  modifies  his  state- 
ments by  exceptions. 

In  type  the  satire  is  for  the  most  part  impersonal ;  the  author 
speaks  not  so  much  his  own  opinions  as  those  of  his  class.  He 
is  the  mouthpiece,  the  spokesman  for  society  against  its  abuses 
whether  in  church,  the  state,  or  the  members. 

The  objects  of  attack  are  those  which  have  always  been  the 


ii8 

target  of  scorn  and  ridicule,  foibles  in  politics,  religion,  and 
society  .  .The  Political  and  religious  satire  is  peculiarly  English ; 
the  Social  satire  is  conventional  and  little  different  from  the  Latin 
except  that  it  lays  more  stress  upon  the  morals  of  classes  than 
;Upon  those  of  individuals. 

Taking  up  Political  satire,  we  find  jiist  one  play,  and  that 
a  fragment  which  may  be  classed  as  a  Political  Morality.  It  is 
"Albyon  Knyght".  Other  plays,  however,  contain  political  allu- 
sions— for  instance,  "Magnificence,"  "Godly  Queen  Hester," 
"Respublica."  "Wealth  and  Health"  and  "King  John."  Among 
the  miracle  cycles,  the  Towneley  plays  have  reference  to  mis- 
government  in  the  complaint  of  the  shepherds  upon  the  economic 
conditions  of  their  day  and  in  the  enumeration  among  the  devil's 
followers  of  false  inquest-holders  and  tax-gatherers.  "Magnifi- 
cence" written  early  in  the  sixteenth  shows  the  hostility 
existing  between  the  government  of  England  and  France 
in  Fancy's  report  of  the  close  watch  kept  for  spies  at 
the  sea-coast.  It  also  shows  the  inconsistencies  in  the 
character  and  in  the  methods  of  the  leading  politician  of  the 
day — \\'olsey — by  the  four  abstractions.  Counterfeit  Count- 
enance, Crafty  Conveyance,  Cloked  Collusion,  and  Courtly  Abu- 
sion.  each  one  of  which  is  thought  to  embody  some  leading  trait 
of  this  powerful  statesman.  They  represent  him  as  a  vain,  haughty 
upstart  who  has  intrenched  himself  in  the  favor  of  the  king  until 
his  power  is  about  regal.  The  whole  play  is  a  satirical  protest 
against  the  false,  scheming  politicians  and  tale-bearers  who  are 
wont  to  gather  about  a  young  prince.  And  in  this  case  the  great 
politician  is  Wolsey. 

"Respublica"  also  has  reference  to  political  affairs — to  the 
mal-administration  of  the  ministers  of  Edward  VI.  The  realm 
is  represented  on  the  verge  of  ruin  through  their  sweeping  public 
robberies  and  their  oppression  of  the  church. 

"Wealth  and  Health"  has  a  political  allusion  to  the  Flemish 
war  anri  a  protest  against  the  influx  of  the  Flemish  weavers. 
These  the  play  represents  as  drunken  and  undesirable  subjects 
both  in  AVill's  description  and  in  the  character.  Drunken  Hance. 

"King  John"  is  political  to  the  extent  that  it  portrays  the 
ill  feeling  existing  between  the  government  and  the  papal  power. 
.Sedition  who  is  al)le  to  appear  as  any  member  of  the  clergy, 
regular  or  secular,  holds  princes  the  representatives  of  the  tern- 


119 

poral  power  in  "scorne,  hate,  and  disdayne."  On  the  other  hand 
King  John  expresses  his  opinion  of  the  spiritual  power  as  fol- 
lows : 

"Ther  is  no  malyce  like  to  that  of  the   clergy." 

"Godly  Queen  Hester"  alludes  to  an  upstart  lord  who  has 
become  very  powerful.  The  satire  is  upon  him  and  the  social 
conditions  which  follow  as  a  result  of  his  prominence  in  politics. 
The  accusations  against  him  are  similar  to  those  against  Wolsey 
in  "Magnificence",  and  may  be  aimed  at  Wolsey. 

But  as  has  been  said  the  essentially  Political  ^Morality  is 
"Albyon  K  -  ^-it."  It  shows  the  selfishness  of  the  four  orders  in 
the  state —  the  ruler,  the  nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  common 
people.  Each  works  for  its  own  interests  in  Parliament  and  pre- 
vents the  passage  or  execution  of  laws  which  may  in  any  way  be 
to  its  disadvantage.  Injury  by  means  of  maintenance  corrupts 
the  law  courts.  Division,  his  accomplice,  sends  two  well-named 
characters.  Double  Devyce  and  Old  Debate  to  set  the  commons 
against  the  king  and  to  stir  up  strife  between  the  nobles  and  the 
clergy — the  "lordes  temporall  and  the  lordes  spirituall."  It  is  a 
realistic  portrayal,  as  far  as  it  goes,  of  the  inner  workings  of 
politics. 

A  brief  review  of  the  subjects  of  political  satire  includes  the 
following  topics :  (  i )  the  failure  to  pass  laws  or  to  enforce 
them  through  the  existence  of  selfish  factions  in  the  government — 
in  Parliament,  (2)  the  pride,  arrogance,  extravagance,  avarice, 
and  double-dealing  of  upstart  politicians.  (3)  the  extortion  of 
false  taxcollectors,  (4)  the  Flemish  War  and  its  results — taxation 
and  an  influx  of  foreigners,  and  (5)  the  fleeing  of  the  clerg}^  by 
unprincipled  ministers  of  state. 

Under  Social  satire  which  deals  with  the  morals  of  society, 
with  fashions,  and  with  the  foibles  and  follies  of  classes,  we  find 
much  of  the  generalized  lament  against  the  sins  of  the  age.  Here 
are  tirades  against  ambition,  superstition ;  pride,  arrogance,  prodi- 
gality, flattery ;  against  drunkenness,  gambling,  quarrelsomeness, 
and  dishonesty  in  trade  such  as  adulteration  of  ale,  use  of  false 
weights  and  false  measures;  and  against  usury,  bribery  perjury. 
and  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  especially  avarice,  gluttony,  sloth,  and 
immorality. 

The  fashions  and  follies  that  are  satirized  embrace  clothes. 


120 

the  haunting  of  taverns,  the  playing  of  bowls  and  skittles,  the 
telling  tales  of  Robin  Hood,  the  marrying  of  old  women  for 
their  money,  the  writing  of  ballads  and  matter  not  worth  a 
"mite".  The  satire  against  fashionable  clothes  is  generally  de- 
livered by  Lucifer,  Satan,  Lust,  or  Pride.  The  devil  claims  to  be 
the  originator  of  new  styles  and  to  have  no  difficulty  in  inducing 
men  and  women  to  follow  them. 

The  classes  satirized  are:  officials  such  as  imperator,  rex, 
judge,  justice,  mayor,  jurors,  summoner,  tax-collector,  and  exec- 
utor, courtier,  lawyer,  merchant,  broker,  miser,  doctors,  min- 
strels, dancers,  upstarts,  foreigners,  and  workmen  such  as  colliers, 
[ilowmen.  carters,  cobblers,  tailors  and  servants. 
The  richest  field  of  English  satire,  however,  is  Religious  sa- 
ire.  The  entire  clergy  is  accused  of  avarice,  immorality,  and 
hypocrisy  from  the  Pope  to  the  humblest  person  or  priest.  Some- 
times the  Pope  appears  on  the  stage  in  person,  either  unnamed  or 
specified,  as  Innocent  the  Third,  or  Pope  Julie,  or  as  in  the  case 
of  Clement  the  Seventh  he  is  reported  as  guilty  of  some  enormity 
such  as  buying  the  Papacy.  Sometimes  his  agents,  wicked  ab- 
stractions such  as  Iniquity,  Tyranny,  and  Avarice,  characterize 
him.  Sometimes  the  devil  himself  claims  him  as  his  son.  The 
most  terrible  satire  on  the  Pope  is,  I  think,  in  "The  Three  Laws." 
A  list  of  the  other  esslesiastics  who  come  under  the  lash  of  the 
satirists  would  include  cardinals,  bishops,  prelates,  abbots,  par- 
sons, priests,  monks,  canons,  nuns,  friars,  presbyters,  preachers, 
divines  and  curates. 

To  consider  this  religious  satire  in  greater  detail  than  the 
other  kinds  seems  proper  as  it  forms  the  bulk  of  the  informal 
dramatic  satire.  There  was  satire  directed  at  the  hypocrisy  of  the 
friars;  the  Latin  of  the  clergy;  the  ignorance  of  many  of  the 
inferior  clergy;  sinful  priests,  unchaste  nuns,  avaricious  prelates, 
false  preachers,  lazy  divines,  and  apostate  monks.  There  was  the 
bitterest  satire  against  the  form  and  ceremonies  of  the  church  in 
the  Controversial  dramas.  Lender  the  ban  were  legacies,  lie- 
quests,  mortuaries,  bulls,  pardons,  indulgences,  relics,  hallowed 
bells,  tapers,  candlesticks,  censers,  portas.  bedes.  copes,  surplices, 
oil  salt,  bran,  cruettes,  mass,  trentals.  pilgrimages,  and  worship 
of  saints ;  also  the  singing  in  Latin,  the  ducking  at  grace,  the 
mummyng.  the  bearing  of  the  cross,  the  crouching,  the  setting 
up  of  lights,  the  reading  of  the  gospel  and  epistle,  the  fasting  in 


121 

Lent — all  these  were  condemned  by  the  reformers.  The  satirist 
noted  the  striking  contrast  between  the  attention  the  clergy  paid 
to  Christ  and  that  to  idle  useless  ceremonies;  he  bewailed  their 
working  upon  the  superstition  of  the  ignorant  masses  their  false 
glosses  on  the  Scriptures,  their  hostility  to  princes,  their  join- 
ing with  lawyers,  their  methods  of  securing  money  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  poor. 

The  religious  satire  in  the  drama  dealt  with  the  same  sub- 
ject-matter as  the  early  undramatic  satire.  Both  aired  the  same 
inconsistencies.  The  thirteenth  century  "When  Holy  Church  is 
under  Foot"  points  out  the  same  fault  in  the  church  as  the  late 
morality,  "Three  Ladies  of  London",  and  that  College  play  "The 
Return  from  Parnassus"  or  "The  Scourge  of  Simony."  Skelton 
and  Lyndsay  of  the  sixteenth  century  merely  renew  the  attack 
upon  the  church  which  had  begun  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. This  they  cast  in  the  most  popular  literary  form  of  the 
time — the  drama.  The  brunt  of  the  attack  falls  upon  the  friar. 
Heywod  in  his  farces  and  Lyndsay  in  his  "Pleasant  Satyre"  give 
us  the  same  opinion  of  him  as  the  early  "Jack  Upland"  and 
"The  Song  on  the  Friars."  In  the  last  a  probationary  friar  who 
has  become  disgusted  before  his  year  of  probation  is  up,  charges 
them  with  hypocrisy  and  immorality.  They  pretend  to  be  ab- 
stemious and  to  lead  a  life  of  prayer  and  study,  but  in  reality  they 
are  good  livers,  good  dressers,  and  keen  sportsmen.  They  do 
not  practice  what  they  preach. 

"Full   wysely   can   thai   preche  and   say 
Bot   as   they   preche   no   thing   do   thai." 

There  is  the  same  accusation  in  the  poem  "On  the  Minorite 
Friars"  ; 

"Thai   preche  alle  of  povert,  bot  that   love  thai   noght ; 
For  gode  mete  to  thair  mouthe  the  toun  is  thurgh  soght 
Wyde  are  thair  wonnynges,  and  wonderfully   wroght ; 


Sle  thi  fadre.  and  jape  thi  modre.  and  thai  vvyl  the  assoile." 

The  generalized  lament  so  common  in  the  Aloralities  appears 
in  these  early  poems.  In  the  fourteenth  century  "On  the  Times" 
we  find,  "Dred  of  God  is  went"  and  "Goddes  dere  halydays  ar 
noght."  In  "A  Poem  on  the  Times  of  Edward  11",  the  specific 
charge  is  simony. 


122 

"Voys    of    clerk    shal    lytyl    be    lierd 
At   the  court  of   Rome 
Were  he  never  so  godc  a  clerk 
Without   selvcr  an  lie  come; 

\  John  Qower  in  the  i)rologue  to  his  "Confessio  Amantis" 
speaks  of  the  inconsistencies  in  the  church  in  th  same  tone  as  the 
foreg^oing  poem : 

"For  if   men   loke   in   lioly  churche 
Betwene  the  word  and  that  they  wirche 
There  is  a  ful  gret  difiference." 


^ 


So,  too,  he  and  the  author  of  "Piers  Plowman"  express 
opinions  on  the  responsibility  which  prelates  feel,  similar  to  that 
of  Exercitation  in  "Longer  thou  Livest  more  Fool  than  Art"  : 

"Ther  ben  of  suche  many  glade. 
Whan  they  to  thilke  estate  ben  made 
Nought  for  the  merite  of  the  charge 
But   for  they  wolde   hem   self   discharge 
Of  poverte  and  liecome  grete." 

/  We  may  say  that  the  drama  deals  with  contemporary  prob- 
lems— religious,  social,  and  political — just  as  the  songs,  ballads, 
and  other  literary  forms.  It  has  laments,  direct  rebuke,  and  invec- 
tives. It  reflects  social  conditions  which  do  not  differ  from  those 
in  "Piers  Plowman".  There  is  discontent,  hunger,  lack  of  em- 
ployment, hosts  of  beggars,  and  the  custom  of  haunting  taverns 
and  marrying  for  money.  Its  subject  matter,  then,  is  not  new. 
Its  method  is  generally  narrative  and  its  characterization,  if  we 
can  call  it  by  that  name,  direct,  a  character  analyzes  himself  or 
another  character.  But  that  the  dramatic  method,  crude- as  it  is,  is 
superior  to  the  undramatic  may  be  shown  by  this  instance.  The 
early  poems  speak  of  the  inferior  clergy  as  ignorant  and  ineffi- 
cient ;  the  drama,  at  least  in  two  cases,  gives  us  types  of  the  stupid 
ecclesiastic  in  Caconos  and  Sir  Lawrence  Livingless.  The  first 
is  characterized  indirectly  by  what  he  says  he  does  and  the  second, 
both  indirectly  and  directly.  They  are  real,  concrete  and  there- 
fore more  effective  than  any  general  statement  concerning  ig- 
norant prists. 

Compared  with  the  informal  dramatic  satire  of  Ben  Jonson. 
this  early  satire  is  lacking  in  unity  and  characterization.  Its 
satire  is  not  so  all  pervading  as  that  in  "The  Alchemist"  and 


123 

"\'olpone".  It  is  rather  a  foerunner  of  the  satirical  drama  of 
the  later  decades  of  the  Elizabethan  period.  Ben  Jonson  satirizes 
a  particular  religious  sect — the  Puritans,  and  the  follies  of 
mankind  in  general  by  excessive  exaggeration.  The  satire  on 
woman  is  represented  in  the  characters,  "Fine  Madam  Would-be" 
and  "Dame  Pliant".  The  best  Puritan  types  are  the  two  charac- 
ters in  "The  Alchemist" — Tribulation  Wholesome  and  the  deacon 
Ananias — and  the  sactimonious  Zeal-of-the  Land-Busy  in  "Bar- 
tholomew Fair".  Here  in  Ben  Jonson's  dramas  we  find  satire 
treated  in  an  artistic  manner ;  it  is  considered  material  not  for 
instruction  but  for  amusement.  Many  of  the  characters  in  the 
plays  still  show  morality  relationship  by  their  names.  The  in- 
creased dramatic  skill  affords  a  stronger  presentation  of  satire 
than  the  authors  of  the  early  moralities  were  able  to  secure.  John 
Heywood  in  his  farces  had  the  right  idea  that  the  function  of  the 
drama  was  not  the  same  as  that  of  the  sermon. 

To  sum  up  the  political  and  social  traits  reflected  in  this 
early  drama  would  require  mention  of  allusions  to  jealousy  of 
royal  ministers,  to  arrogant  political  upstarts,  to  maladministra- 
tion in  the  reigns  of  Henry  VHI,  Edward  \  I,  and  Mary,  and  to 
dissension  between  the  different  orders  in  Parliament  in  Eliza- 
beth's reign.  Social  references  would  include  all  the  satire  di- 
rected against  the  various  classes,  such  as  the  greedy  merchant( 
the  dishonest  tapster,  the  avaricious  lawyer,  the  quack  doctor, 
and  the  upstart  foreigner.  The  gallant  should  not  be  omitted, 
for  he  furnishes  us  data  for  fashions,  high  small  bonnets,  high 
head  dresses,  horns,  side  locks,  jagged  hoods,  collars  splayed  with 
fur,  ruffs,  paint,  perfume,  jagged  clothes,  prankyd  gownes,  no 
sleeves,  wide  full  sleeves,  wide  gowns,  gowns  of  three  yards, 
velvet  coats,  shirts  of  fine  Holland,  stomachers,  doublets  opened  in 
front  and  behind,  gay  gyrdyls.  "empti  purses",  a  dagger,  breeches 
as  big  as  good  barrels,  crimson  hose,  striped  hose  with  corselettys 
of  fyne  velves  slyped  to  knee,  and  below  the  knee  hosen  parti- 
colored. There  was  the  same  inconsistency  in  dressing  in  those 
days  as  now  :  they  did  not  dress  according  to  that  old  play  Nature, 
"to  kepe  the  carcas  warm." 

"My  doublet  ys  onlaced   byfore 
A  stomacher  of  satan  and  no  more 
Rayn  it.  snow  yt  never  so  sore 
Me  thvnketh  I   am  to  bote." 


124 

The  allusions  to  religion,  however,  fcjrni  the  bulk  of  the 
\  early  ('ranitic  satire.  They  show  the  strife  that  existed  between 
the  temporal  and  the  spiritual  powers ;  the  corruption  that  was 
prevalent  in  the  clergy  and  the  intense  feeling  aroused  by  it, 
which  became  especially  marked  as  the  era  of  the  Reformation 
approached.  These  allusions  enforced  by  others  in  the  songs 
and  poems  of  the  period,  and  in  pamphlets  and  tracts  such  as 
"Rede  me  and  be  Nott  Wrothe"  lead  us  to  infer  that  they  were 
in  grreat  measure  true. 


REFERENCES. 


CHAPTERS    I  AND  II. 

1.  Alden,  Raymond  M.,  "The  Ri^e  of  Formal  Satire  in  England  under 
CTassical  Influence." 

2.  Tucker,  Samuel  Marion,  'A'erse  Satire  in  England  before  the 
Renaissance." 

3.  Pollard,  A.  W. 

4.  "Political  Poems  and  Songs  Relating  to  English  History  during  the 
Period  from  the  Accession  of  Edw.  Ill  to  that  of  Rich.  III.,  Ed. 
Thomas  Wright  I.  263. 

0.  "The  Complete  Works  of  Chaucer,"  Ed.  W.  W.  Skeat. 

6.  Dodsley's  Old  English  Plays.     Ed.     Hazlitt.  vol.  I. 

7.  Early  English  Text  Society.     37  Part  4,  Lyndesays  Works; 

8.  Chester  Plays.  Ed.  T.  Wright,  Shak.  Sos. 
!i.  Ibid. 

1(1.  Ibid. 

11.  Ibid. 

12.  "Ludus  Coventriae."  Ed.  J.  C.  Hallivvell-Phillips,  Shak.  Soc.  1841. 
p.  71ff. 

13.  Ibid.  XX  p.  190. 

14.  Ibid.  XXV  p.  352. 

15.  Ibid.  XXXII  pp.  319-21. 

10.  Towneley  plays,  Ed.  George  England,  E.  E.  T.  S.  Ex.  Ser.  71,  XXX  p. 
374. 

17.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  376  11.  296flf. 

18.  Ibid.  II  p.  12  11  104  f. 

19.  Ibid.  XII.  p.  109  11  285-6. 

20.  Ibid.  XII,  p.  112. 

21 .  Digby  Mysteries,  Ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall,  E.  E.  T.  S.  EX.  SER.  70. 

22.  Chester  Plays,  vol.  I,  VI.  p.  106. 

23.  Ibid.  XXV,  pp.  184-5.  vol.  II. 

24.  Ibid.  vol.  II.  XXV.  p.  187. 

25.  Ibid. 

26.  Ibid. 

27.  Ibid. 

28.  Ancient  Cornish  Drama,  Ed.  E.  Norris,  p.  215,  vol.  II. 

29.  Ludus  Coventriae,  J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillips,  X,  p.  98. 

30.  Ibid.  XII,  p.  118. 

31.  Ibid.  XII,  p.  119. 

32.  Ibid.  XIV,  p.  131. 

33.  Ibid.  XIV,  p.  136. 

125 


126 

a-4.  ll.id.  \"I.  p.  (il. 

Mo.  Il)i(l.  XVI.  p.  158. 

•Mi.  Ibid.  XV,  p.  14o. 

■A7.  J  bid.  XXV  pp.  241  ff. 

.•{8.  Towncley  Plays.     E.  E.  T.  S.  ex  ser.  71,  XXX  p.  373  11.  183  ff. 

39.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  373  11.  189  f. 

40.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  376  11.  279  ff. 

41.  Ibid.  XX  pp.  204-5  11  19  ff. 

42.  Ibid.  XXII  p.  243  11.  15  ff. 

43.  Ibid.  XXI.  p.  233  11.  159-63. 

44.  Ibid.  XI 1  p.  1(11  11.  31-2. 

45.  Ibid.  XLl  p.  102  11.  55-75. 

46.  Ibid.  XII  p.  102  1.  93  f. 

47.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  377,  11  307-22. 

48.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  385  11.  570  ff. 

49.  Ibid.  XXX  pp.  377-8  11.  333-9. 

50.  Ibid.  XXIV  p.  292  1.  372  ff. 

51.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  379,  1.  372  ff. 

52.  Ibid.  XXX  pp.  374-5  11.  233-43.    ' 

53.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  371  11.  323-31. 

54.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  384  1  552. 

55.  Ibid.  p.  34  11  389-96. 

56.  Ibid.  Ill,  p.  28  11.  186-89. 

57.  Ibid.  III.  p.  35  11.  397  ff. 

58.  Ibid.  II  pp.  94-5  11.  299  ff.  .         • 

59.  Ibid.  XII  p.  103  1.  95  ff. 

60.  Ibid.  XIII  p.  118  11.  73-98. 

61.  Ibid.  XXXVIII  pp.  338-9  11.  30-5,2. 

62.  Ibid.  p.  347  1.  233. 

63.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  372  1.  161. 

64.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  375  1.  253. 
6.5.  Ibid.  XXX  p.  375  1260  ff. 

66.  Ibid.  XV  p.  164  11.  146-50. 

67.  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays.     Ed.  Hardin  Craig.     E.  E.  T.  S. 
ex.  ser.  87. 

68.  Digby  Mysteries.     Ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall,  E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  70. 

69.  \on-Cycle  Mystery  Plays.     E.  E.  T.S.  ex.  ser.  104. 

CHAPTER    III. 

The  Cambridge  History  of  Englisb  Literature,  vol.  pp. 
Furnivall,   F.  J.,  'Pollard,  A.   W.   and   Walter  Kay   Smart 

3.  Ludus  Coventriae    pp. 

4.  Quellen  und  Forschungen.     Ed.  Alois  Brandl.     pp.  24-26 
The   Macro   Plays.     Ed.,   F.   J.   Furnivall,   and   A.   W.    Pollard,   E. 
E.  T.  S.  Ex.  ser.  91  p.  80. 
Ibid.  pp.  102-3  11  843ff. 
Ibid.  p.   103  1.     858ff. 
Ibid.  p.   103   1.     865. 


127 


!). 

Ibid.  p.  109  1.     1060  ff. 

10. 

Ibid.  p.  110  1.     1091 

11. 

Ibid.  p.  Ill  1.     1130  f. 

1-2. 

Ibid.  p.  Ill  '.     1149  t. 

13. 

Ibid.  p.   1'   -2  1.     1158  f. 

14. 

rbid.  p.  113  ].     1198. 

15. 

Ibid.  p.  113  1.     1215. 

16. 

Ibid.  p.  147  1.    2333. 

17. 

Ibid.  p.  152  1.     2527  ff. 

18. 

Ibid.  p.  153  1.     2542  f. 

19. 

Ibid.  p.  154  1.     2559  f. 

20. 

Ibid.  pp.  154-5  11.     2606  ff. 

21. 

Ibid.  p.  156  1.     2664. 

22. 

Ibid  p.  158  1.     2716  ff. 

23. 

Ibid.,  p.  158  1.     2731  ff. 

24. 

Smart,  Walter  Kay.     "Some  English  and  Latin  Sources 
lels  for  the  Morality  of  Wisdom." 

and  Paral 

25. 

The  Macro  Plays.     E.  E.  T.  S.    Ex.  Ser.  91.  1.  470  ff. 

2(i. 

Ibid.  p.  51  1.     487  ff. 

27. 

Ibid.  p.  55  1.    604  ff. 

28. 

Ibid.  p.  55  1.  608  ff. 

2!'. 

Ibid.  p.  56  1.     632  ff. 

30. 

Ibid.  p.  56  1.    640  ff. 

31. 

Ibid.  p.  56  1.    652  f. 

32. 

Ibid.  p.  57  1.     6-50  and  669. 

33. 

Ibid.  p.  57  1.    666. 

34. 

Ibid.  p.  57.     670  f. 

35. 

Ibid.  p.  57  1.     672  ff. 

36. 

Ibid  p.  57  1.     676  ff. 

37. 

Ibid.  p.  57  1.    681  ff. 

38. 

Ibid.  p.  58  1.     684  f. 

39. 

Ibid.  p.  59  1.    732  ff. 

40. 

Ibid  p.  60  1.    741  ff. 

41. 

Ibid.  p.  61  1.     770. 

42. 

Ibid.  p.  61  1.    796. 

43. 

Ibid.  p.  63  1.     854  ff. 

44. 

Ibid.  p.  5  1.     124. 

45. 

Ibid.  p.  11  1.     291. 

46. 

Ibid.  p.  19  1.    498. 

47. 

Ibid.  p.  1. 

48. 

Ibid.  p.  23  1.    626. 

49. 

Ibid.  p.  23  1.     622. 

'iO. 

Ibid.  pp.  24-26. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Dodsley.  Old  English  Plays,  vol.  I,  p.  263. 

2.  and  3.     Ibid.  p.  262. 

4.     Ibid.   p.  270. 


128 


5. 

Dodslcy,  O.  E.  P.  vol.  I,  p.  7. 

(). 

Ibid.  p.  8. 

7. 

Ibid. 

8. 

Ibid.  pp.  100-1. 

y. 

ibid.  p.  134. 

10. 

Ibid.  pp.  151-2. 

11. 

Ibid  p.  153. 

12. 

Ibid.  p.  156. 

13. 

Ibid.  p.  157. 

14. 

Ibid. 

15. 

Ibid.  p.  178. 

16. 

Ibid.  pp.  174-5. 

17. 

Ibid.  p.  185. 

18. 

E.  E.  T.  S.  ex.  ser.  Ed.  Robert,  Lee  Ramsay,   p.  1. 

19. 

Ibid.  p.  10  1.     279  ff. 

•20. 

Ibid.  p.  12  1.     347  fif. 

21. 

Ibid.  p.  14  1.    417  ff. 

22. 

Ibid.  p.  15  1.    462. 

23. 

Ibid.   p.   16   1.     474  ff. 

24. 

Ibid.  p.  1.    487. 

25. 

Ibid.  p.  23  1.     710  ff. 

2(3. 

Ibid.  p.  29  11.    897  ff. 

27. 

Ibid.  p.  39  1.     1240  ff. 

28. 

Ibid.  p.  40  1.     1267  ff. 

29. 

Ibid.  pp.  41-2  1.     1327  ff. 

30. 

Ibid.  p.  48  1.     1529  f;  1  1537  f. 

31. 

Ibid.  p.  54  1.     1750   ff. 

32. 

Ibid.  p.  55  1.     1772  ff. 

33. 

Ibid.  p.  66  1.     2121  ff. 

34. 

Ibid.  p.  66  1.     2135  ff. 

35. 

Ibid.  p.  66  1.    2145  ff. 

36. 

"Quellen  und  Forschungen."     Ed.  Alois  Brandl.  p, 

37. 

Ibid.  p.  106. 

38. 

Ibid.  p.  139. 

39. 

Ibid.  p.  141. 

40. 

Ibid.  pp.  145-6. 

41. 

Dodskey's  O.  E.  P.  vol.  11.  p.  57. 

42. 

Ibid.  p.  62. 

43. 

Ibid.  p.  65. 

44. 

Dodsley's  0.  E.  P.  vol.  II.  p.  66. 

45. 

Ibid.  p.  76. 

46. 

Ibid.  p.  90. 

47. 

Lbid.   p.   94. 

48. 

Ibid.  p.  14. 

49. 

Ibid.  pp.  14-15. 

50. 

Specimens  of   Pre-Shakespearean   Drama.     Manly 

27  ff. 

51. 

ll)id.  p.  528  1.    80  f. 

105. 


J.  M.  p.  526  1. 


129 


52. 

Ibid. 

p.  582  1. 

187  f. 

53. 

Ibid. 

p.  532  1. 

195  f. 

54. 

Ibid. 

p.  534  1. 

245. 

55. 

Ibid. 

p.  537  1. 

334. 

56. 

Ibid. 

p.  540  1. 

415. 

57. 

Ibid. 

p.  549  1. 

687-97. 

58. 

Ibid. 

p.  559  1. 

990  f. 

59. 

Ibid. 

p.  560  1. 

9.97  f. 

(JO. 

Ibid. 

p.  562  1. 

1081  ff. 

Gl. 

Ibid. 

p.  569  1. 

1262  f. 

02. 

Ibid. 

p.  577  1. 

1515  f. 

G3. 

Ibid. 

p.  579  1 : 

1565  f. 

ti4. 

Ibid. 

p.  581  1. 

1623. 

65. 

Ibid. 

p.  584  1. 

1684  ff. 

(j(i. 

Ibid. 

p.  588  11. 

1787  ff. 

67. 

Ibid. 

p.  589  1. 

1806  f. 

68. 

Ibid. 

p.  600  1. 

2123. 

69. 

Ibid. 

p.  613  1. 

2487  ff. 

70. 

Angl 

ia  5,  1882. 

p.  172  1.    400  ff. 

71. 

Ibid. 

p.  173  1. 

439  ff. 

72. 

Ibid. 

p.  175  1. 

496  ff. 

73. 

Ibid. 

p.  176  1. 

570  ff. 

74. 

Ibid. 

p.  178  11. 

628-647. 

75. 

Ibid. 

p.  179  11. 

660-678. 

76. 

Ibid. 

p.  180. 

77. 

Ibid. 

p.  180  11. 

7714-31. 

78. 

Ibid. 

pp.  181-2 

11.     758-771. 

79. 

Ibid. 

p.  184  11 

.     846-857. 

79. 

'  Ibid. 

p.  184  11 

.     846-857. 

80. 

Ibid. 

p.  189  1. 

979  ff. 

81. 

Ibid. 

p.  189  1. 

984-1012. 

82. 

Ibid. 

p.  190  11, 

.     1021-1058  f. 

83. 

Ibid. 

pp.  192-3  11.     1123  ff. 

84. 

Ibid. 

pp.  191-2 

11.     108(1  ff. 

85. 

Ibid. 

p.  193  1. 

1163  ff. 

86. 

Ibid. 

p.  194  1. 

1187. 

87. 

Ibid. 

p.  194  1. 

12(^8  f. 

88. 

Ibid. 

p.  195  1. 

1211  ff. 

89. 

Ibid. 

p.  195  1. 

1222  ff. 

90. 

Ibid. 

p.  195  1. 

1231  f. 

91. 

Ibid. 

p.  197  1. 

1274  ff. 

92. 

Ibid. 

p.  205  11. 

1516-28. 

93. 

Ibid. 

p.  206  11 

.     1573  ff. 

94. 

Ibid. 

p.  208  1. 

1608. 

95. 

Ibid. 

p.  208  1. 

16-7. 

96. 

Ibid. 

p.  223. 

97. 

Dodsley,  0.  E. 

P.  vol.  1. 

130 


98. 

E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  scr.  91 

.  ]).   11    11.     (11!) 

99. 

Ibid.  p.  23  1.     007  f. 

100. 

Ibid  p.  2()  1.    7H1  f. 

101. 

E.  E.  T.  S.,  ex.  ser.  p. 

27  1.    S(i:?. 

102. 

Ibid.  p.  20   1.     708. 

103. 

Ibid.  p.  30  1.    921. 

104. 

Ibid.  p.  31  1.    950  ff. 

105. 

Ibid.  p.  35  1.     1070. 

10(). 

Ibid.  p.  30  1.     1077. 

I(i7. 

Ibid.  p.  30  1.     1093  ff. 

CHAPTI-R   \ 

Malone  Society  Collections.     1.    loo. 

Ibid.    1.   420. 

Ibid.  1.  93  f. 

Ibid.  1.  140  ff. 

Dodsley's  O.  E.  P.  vol.  II  p.  lOii. 

Ibid.  p.  170. 

"Materialien   zur   Kunde   des  iiltercn   En^lisclicn 

Bang,  p.  II,  11.  285-0. 


8. 

Ibid.  p.  16. 

9. 

Ibid. 

10. 

Ibid. 

11. 

Ibid.  p.  26. 

12. 

Ibid.  pp.  16-7. 

13. 

Ibid.  p.  18. 

14. 

Ibid.  p.  20. 

15. 

10. 

Ibid.  p.  21. 
Ibid.  p.  34. 

, 

17. 

"Quellen   und   Forschungen" 

.   ]).   378. 

18. 

Ibid.  p.  390. 

19. 

Ibid.  p.  413. 

20. 

Malone  Society.     I.  1911,  \).  : 

•J;|,;> 

21. 

Ibid.  p.  23,  1  9(i  ff. 

22. 

Ibid.  p.  235. 

23. 

Ibid.  p.  238,  1.  259  ft'. 

24. 

Ibid.  pp.  238-9  1.  271  ff. 

25. 

Ibid.  p.  239. 

20. 

"The   Life   and   Repentance 
penter.     p.   15. 

of   Mary   Magd 

alene." 

27. 

Ibid.  p.  21. 

28. 

Ibid.  p.  31,  1.  0.38  f. 

29. 

Ibid.  pp.  31-2. 

30. 
31. 

Ibid.  p.  32. 

Ibid.  p.  06.  11.  1520-.3O. 

32 . 

Ibid.  p.  06  11.  1539  ff. 

33. 

Dodsley's  0.  E.   P.  vol.  IT! 

p.  264. 

34. 

Ibid.  p.  260. 

Ed.   F.-J.   Car- 


131 


35.  Ibid.  p.  26j. 

36.  Ibid.  p.  312. 

37.  Ibid.  p.  314. 

38.  Ibid.  p.  32o. 

39.  Ibid.  p.  326. 

40.  Ibid.  p.  324. 

41 .  Ibid.  p.  335 


42.  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  36.  p.  29,  1.  -jol  fif. 

43.  Ibid.  p.  41,  I.  1011   fif. 


44.  Ibid.  p.  57. 

45.  Ibid.  p.  22. 

46.  O.  E.  P.  vol.  Ill,  p.  7. 

47.  Ibid.  p.  8. 

48.  Ibid.  pp.  10-11. 

49.  Ibid.  p.  14. 

50.  Ibid.  p.  16. 

51.  Ibid.  p.  17. 

52.  Ibid.  p.  28. 

53.  Ibid.  p.  30. 

54.  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch  43.  pp.  14-5. 

55.  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch  43.  p.  18  11.  2!*3-4. 

56.  Ibid.  p.  23  1.  458  ff. 

57.  Ibid.  p.  24  1.  554  ff. 

58.  Ibid.  p.  35  1.  1094  ff. 

59.  Ibid.  p.  51.   1.   1824  f. 

60.  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch  XL.  p.   1!8   11.  11:J-1!I. 

61.  Ibid.  p.  149,  1.147  ff. 

62.  Ibid.  p.  151  1.  209-17. 

63.  Ibid.  p.  162. 

64.  Ibid.  p.  163  1.  689. 

65.  Ibid.  p.  163  1.  704  ff. 

66.  Ibid.  p.  166.  1.  809. 

67.  Ibid.  p.  169,  1.  915  ff. 

68.  Ibid.  p.  178  1.  1247  ff. 

70.  O.  E.  P.  vol.  VI.  pp.  36-7. 

71.  Ibid.  p.  50. 

72.  Ibid.  p.  50. 
Ibid.  p.  61. 
Ibid.  pp.  70-74. 

- .  Ibid.  p.  73. 

6.  O.  E.  P.  vol.  VI.  p.  97. 

77.  Ibid.  p.  249-50. 

78.  Ibid.  p.  255. 

79.  Ibid.  p.  260. 

80.  Ibid.  p.  268. 

81.  Ibid.  p.  269. 

82.  Ibid.  p.  271. 

83.  Ibid.  p.  276. 


73. 
74. 
75. 


132 


SI. 
So . 
S(!. 
ST. 
SS. 
8!). 
90. 
ill. 
i'2 . 

m. 

!»4. 

9.J . 

96. 

97. 

98. 

99. 
100. 
101. 
102. 


Ibid.  p.  277. 

Ibid.  p.  278. 

Ibid.  p.  28:?. 

Ibid.  p.  287. 

Ibid.  p.  293. 

Ibid.  p.  291. 

Ibid.  p.  305. 

Ibid.  pp.  325-6. 

Ibid.  p.  364. 

Ibid.  p.  412. 

Ibid.  p.  413. 

Ibid.  p.  501. 

Ibid.  p.  456. 

Ibid.  pp.  456-7. 

Ibid.  p.  470. 

O.  E.  P.  vol.  VIII  p.  335. 

Ibid.  p.  341. 

Ibid.  p.  343. 

Ibid.  p.  373. 


"ane  pleasant  satyre  of  the  thrie  estaitis 

1.  E.  E.  T.  S.  37.  Part  4.  p.  379  1.  76  ff. 

2.  Ibid.  p.  384.  1  237  ff. 

3.  Ibid.  p.  385  1.  253. 

4.  Ibid.  p.  385  1  261. 

5.  Ibid.  p.  394  1.    507  ff. 

6.  Ibid.  p.  396.  1.  574  ff. 

7.  Ibid.  p.  401  1.  722  ff. 

8.  Ibid.  p.  402  1.  743  ff. 

9.  Ibid.  p.  410.  1.  904  ff. 

10.  Ibid.  p.  417.  1.  1091   ff. 

11.  Ibid.  p.  417  1.  1110  ff. 

12.  Ibid.  p.  418.  1.  1118  ff. 

13.  Ibid.  p.  419  1.  1144  ff. 

14.  Ibid.  p.  427.  1.  1360  ff. 

15.  Ibid.  p.  431  1.  1456  ff. 

16.  Ibid.  p.  433.  1.  1516  ff. 

17.  Ibid.  p.  440.  1.  1722. 

18.  Ibid.  p.  450.  1.  1966  ff. 

19.  Ibid.  p.  451  1.  2006  ff. 

20.  Ibid.  p.  452  1.  2029  ff. 

21.  Ibid.  p.  453  1.  2050. 

22.  Ibid.  p.  454  1.  2065. 

23.  Ibid.  p.  469  1.  2445. 

24.  Ibid.  p.  469  1.  2451  ff. 

25.  Ibid.  p.  471  1.  2479  ff. 

26.  Ibid.  p.  471   1.  2497  ff. 


133 


•27. 

Ibid. 

p.  475  1.  '2567  ff. 

•28. 

Ibid. 

p.  475  1.  2583  fif. 

21). 

Ibid. 

p.  477  1.  2658. 

:?0. 

Ibid. 

p.  480  1.  2725  ff. 

31. 

Ibid. 

p.  480  1.  2745  f. 

32. 

Ibid. 

p.  480  1.  2751  f. 

33. 

Ibid. 

p.  484  1.  -28:38  f. 

34. 

Ibid. 

p.  485  1.  2859  ff. 

35 . 

Ibid. 

p.  495  1.  3127  ff. 

36. 

Ibid. 

p.  496  1.  3149. 

37. 

Ibid. 

p.  503  1.  3347  ff. 

38. 

Ibid. 

pp.  505-6.  • 

39. 

Ibid. 

p.  514. 

40. 

Ibid. 

p.  518  1.  3760. 

41. 

Ibid. 

pp.  519-20. 

42. 

Ibid. 

p.  534  11.  4245  ff. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  Malone  Society  Collections,  I,  1911.  p.  "20. 

•2.  Ibid.  p.  24. 

3.  Malone  Society  Reprints,   1907.   1.  385  ff. 

4.  .  Ibid.  1.  413. 

5.  Ibid.  1.  454. 

(5.  Malone  Society  Collections  I,  p.  "245  .  1911. 

7.  Ibid.  p.  317. 

8.  Ibid.  p.  319. 

9.  Ibid.  p.  28. 

10.  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  XXXIII,  p.  13. 

11.  Ibid.  p.  16  1.     109  ff. 
r2.  Ibid.  p.  16  1.     1^22  ff. 

13.  Ibid.  p.  17  1.     137  ff. 

14.  Ibid.  p.  22  1.     118  ff. 

15.  Ibid.  p.  24  1.     26  ff. 

16.  Ibid.  p.  '24  1.    31. 

17.  Ibid.  p.  24  1.    36. 

18.  Ibid.  pp.  24,  25. 

19.  Ibid.  p.  29  1.     9ff. 

•20.  Dodsley's.  O.  E.  P.,  vol.   IV,  p.  •23^2. 

21.  Ibid.  p.  '244. 

'22.  Dodsley's,  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  I. 

'23.  Ibid.  pp.  343-5. 

24.  Ibid.  p.  352. 

25.  Ibid.  p.  378. 

26.  Ibid.  pp.  379-80. 

27.  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II.  p.  112. 
•28.  Ibid.  p.  154. 

29.  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II.  p.  144. 


134 

•'iO.  Malonc   Society   Reprints,   1!)1h.   p.   J.   1.     ds  (Y. 

'M.  "Quellen  und  Forsclniiigen."     Alois  P>raii(ll.  pp.  (;(i:?-4. 

:V2.  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  1.  pp.  (50-(il. 

38.  O.  E.  P.,  vol.  II.  pp.  272-3. 

34.  Ibid.  pp.  280-1. 

35.  Ibid.  p.  293. 


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